Tag Archives: CFS

Chronic fatigue syndrome treatments

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Long-term psychiatric and exercise treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome are good value for money, a study has found.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET) are both known to help patients with CFS, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).

The new findings show that, given in addition to medical care, they are also cost effective.

Another treatment option, adaptive pacing therapy (APT), was not judged to be good value.

Researchers based their conclusions on the same criteria used by the NHS efficiency watchdog, the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).

Nice makes a calculation based on years lived in good health, known as quality-adjusted life years or Qalys. A treatment costing less than £20,000 to £30,000 per Qaly is believed to represent value for money.

In the study, CBT given in addition to specialist medical care was found to cost £18,374 per Qaly, GET £23,615 and APT £55,235.

Professor Paul McCrone, a health economist from King’s College London, who led the new study, said: “It’s very encouraging that two treatments found to help a significant number of CFS/ME patients are also cost-effective based on existing Nice criteria.

“There is now a strong case for the NHS to invest in these therapies. Our research suggests this investment would be justified in terms of improving quality of life for patients and could actually save costs to society if the impact on family members is taken into account.”

chronic fatigue syndrome

chronic fatigue syndrome

CFS/ME is a complex and debilitating condition that affects around 250,000 adults and children in the UK.

Symptoms include extreme physical and mental fatigue, muscle and joint pain, disturbed sleep, and concentration and memory problems.

The new results, published in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE, are the latest from the Pace trial, funded by the Medical Research Council.


The trial began in 2005 and recruited 640 patients. It compared four of the main treatments available for people with CFS/ME, specialist medical care, CBT, GET and APT.

CBT helps patients understand how to affect their symptoms by thinking about them differently. GET involves a tailored exercise programme taking into account a patient’s fitness and symptoms.

APT is an occupational therapy approach that matches a patients’ activity level to the amount of energy they have.

Early findings from the trial reported last year showed that CBT and GET could benefit 60% of patients for whom fatigue was the main symptom.

The latest study looked at cost effectiveness over a period of one year.

Specialist medical care was the cheapest single option. But when benefit to quality of life was taken into account, medical care plus CBT became the most cost-effective treatment followed by GET.

Cognitive behavioural therapy and Chronic fatigue syndrome

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Exercise and behavioural therapies are the most cost-effective and successful ways to treat Chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as ME, an analysis shows.

A study of 640 patients showed these treatments had the potential to save the economy millions of pounds if they were widely adopted.

The findings were published in the journal PLoS ONE.

However, another treatment favoured by patients’ groups was shown to offer little value.

Nobody knows what causes the condition, yet a quarter of a million people in the UK are thought to have it.

The symptoms include severe tiredness, poor concentration and memory as well as muscle and joint pain and disturbed sleep.

An earlier version of this research, published last year, showed that cognitive behavioural therapy (changing how people think about their symptoms) and graded exercise therapy (gradually increasing the amount of exercise) were the most effective treatments.

However, the study provoked anger from many patients’ groups which argued that pacing therapies (learning to live within limits) were both better and safer for patients.

ME/CFS

ME/CFS

Using data from the same set of patients, researchers compared improvements in levels of fatigue and activity with the cost to the NHS of providing the treatments.

It concluded that only cognitive behavioural therapy and graded exercise therapy could be considered cost-effective.


When the wider cost to society was considered, such as lost work or the cost of carers, those two therapies provided an overall saving.

Prof Paul McCrone, a health economist from King’s College London, said: “There is now a strong case for the NHS to invest in providing these therapies.”

Prof Michael Sharpe, from Oxford University, said: “This new evidence should encourage health service commissioners to provide these treatments to all those patients who need them.”

Sir Peter Spencer, the chief executive of the charity Action for ME, said: “Patient choice should not be reduced as a result of this costing exercise.

“Action for ME will continue to recommend pacing as an effective treatment. We cannot ignore the number of patients who have been helped by it and the number of clinicians who find that it works for their patients.”