Trial reportThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2001
Chronic fatigue in general practice: is counselling as good as cognitive behaviour therapy? A UK randomised trial.
Trial report in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2001. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 107 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cost-effectiveness of Interventions for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: A Systematic Review of Economic Evaluations.Applied health economics and health policy · 2021Pooled it
- Behavioural modification interventions for medically unexplained symptoms in primary care: systematic reviews and economic evaluation.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2020Pooled it
- Enhanced care by generalists for functional somatic symptoms and disorders in primary care.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2013Pooled it
- Counselling for mental health and psychosocial problems in primary care.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2011Pooled it
- Chronic fatigue syndrome.BMJ clinical evidence · 2011Pooled it
- On-site mental health workers delivering psychological therapy and psychosocial interventions to patients in primary care: effects on the professional practice of primary care providers.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2009Pooled it
- Chronic fatigue syndrome.BMJ clinical evidence · 2008Pooled it
- Cognitive behaviour therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome in adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2008Pooled it
- Systematic review of mental health interventions for patients with common somatic symptoms: can research evidence from secondary care be extrapolated to primary care?BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2002Pooled it
- Telephone-administered versus live group cognitive behavioral stress management for adults with CFS.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2017Trial
- Protocol of a mixed method, randomized controlled study to assess the efficacy of a psychosocial intervention to reduce fatigue in patients with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD).BMC nephrology · 2016Trial
- Chronic fatigue self-management in primary care: a randomized trial.Psychosomatic medicine · 2013Trial
- The effect of counselling, graded exercise and usual care for people with chronic fatigue in primary care: a randomized trial.Psychological medicine · 2012Trial
- Cost-effectiveness of counselling, graded-exercise and usual care for chronic fatigue: evidence from a randomised trial in primary care.BMC health services research · 2012Trial
- Nurse led, home based self help treatment for patients in primary care with chronic fatigue syndrome: randomised controlled trial.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2010Trial
- Trial
- Distinguishing patients with chronic fatigue from those with chronic fatigue syndrome: a diagnostic study in UK primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2003Trial
- Chronic fatigue in general practice: economic evaluation of counselling versus cognitive behaviour therapy.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2001Trial
- The burden of persistent symptom diagnoses in primary care patients: a cross-sectional study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2024Article
- Videoconference-delivered group Cognitive Behavioral Stress Management for ME/CFS patients who present with severe PEM: A randomized controlled trial.Fatigue : biomedicine, health & behavior · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFatigue is a common symptom for which patients consult their doctors in primary care. With usual medical management the majority of patients report that their symptoms persist and become chronic. There is little evidence for the effectiveness of any fatigue management in primary care.
aimTo compare the effectiveness of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) with counselling for patients with chronic fatigue and to describe satisfaction with care. DESIGN OF STUDY: Randomised trial with parallel group design.
settingTen general practices located in London and the South Thames region of the United Kingdom recruited patients to the trial between 1996 and 1998. Patients came from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds and lived in urban, suburban, and rural areas.
methodData were collected before randomisation, after treatment, and six months later. Patients were offered six sessions of up to one hour each of either CBT or counselling. Outcomes include: self-report of fatigue symptoms six months later, anxiety and depression, symptom attributions, social adjustment and patients' satisfaction with care.
resultsOne hundred and sixty patients with chronic fatigue entered the trial, 45 (28%) met research criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome; 129 completed follow-up. All patients met Chalder et al's standard criteria for fatigue. Mean fatigue scores were 23 on entry (at baseline) and 15 at six months' follow-up. Sixty-one (47%) patients no longer met standard criteria for fatigue after six months. There was no significant difference in effect between the two therapies on fatigue (1.04 [95% CI = -1.7 to 3.7]), anxiety and depression or social adjustment outcomes for all patients and for the subgroup with chronic fatigue syndrome. Use of antidepressants and consultations with the doctor decreased after therapy but there were no differences between groups.
conclusionCounselling and CBT were equivalent in effect for patients with chronic fatigue in primary care. The choice between therapies can therefore depend on other considerations, such as cost and accessibility.
Indexed as
Identifiers
11271868PMC1313894W1753603165What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.