Vink, Mark, Vink-Niese, Friso · Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022 · DOI
This review looked at research studies testing two treatments commonly recommended for ME/CFS: graded exercise therapy (GET) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The researchers found that patients were actually more likely to be unable to work after receiving these treatments than before, and that both treatments can be harmful. The authors conclude that doctors should stop encouraging ME/CFS patients to push themselves harder to recover, since these approaches don't work and may make things worse.
This study is important because it directly challenges decades-old treatment guidelines that many ME/CFS patients have been encouraged or pressured to follow. The findings validate patient reports of harm from these treatments and provide evidence-based support for reconsidering medical approaches to ME/CFS, potentially reducing inappropriate patient management and unnecessary harm.
This review does not establish the optimal treatments for ME/CFS, only that GET and CBT are not effective. It also does not prove mechanisms of harm in individual patients or provide guidance on safe, alternative management approaches. The absence of long COVID studies means conclusions about that condition remain preliminary.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.