Trial reportArchives of disease in childhood2018
Clinical and cost-effectiveness of the Lightning Process in addition to specialist medical care for paediatric chronic fatigue syndrome: randomised controlled trial.
Trial report in Archives of disease in childhood, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It has been retracted, and should not be counted. Cited by 23 papers, 5 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
23 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of psychological interventions on anxiety in children and youth with chronic medical conditions.Journal of pediatric psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Recent research in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: an evidence map.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- 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
- Interventions to treat pain in paediatric CFS/ME: a systematic review.BMJ paediatrics open · 2020Pooled it
- Comparison of cognitive behaviour therapy versus activity management, both delivered remotely, to treat paediatric chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis: the UK FITNET-NHS RCT.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2024Trial
- Graded exercise therapy compared to activity management for paediatric chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis: pragmatic randomized controlled trial.European journal of pediatrics · 2024Trial
- Persistent physical symptoms not explained by structural abnormalities or disease processes: a primary care approach to promote recovery.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Review
- Cost-effectiveness analysis of capecitabine versus active monitoring in stable or responding metastatic colorectal cancer after 16 weeks of first-line therapy.Annals of medicine · 2025Article
- An audit of 12 cases of long COVID following the lightning process intervention examining benefits and harms.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2025Article
- Observational
- Activity monitoring and patient-reported outcome measures in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patients.PloS one · 2022Observational
- How common are depression and anxiety in adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and how should we screen for these mental health co-morbidities? A clinical cohort study.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2021Article
- Article
- Assessing functioning in adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome: psychometric properties and factor structure of the School and Social Adjustment Scale and the Physical Functioning Subscale of the SF36.Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy · 2020Article
- Management of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis in a pediatric population: A scoping review.Journal of child health care : for professionals working with children in the hospital and community · 2020Article
- Cognitive-behavioural therapy combined with music therapy for chronic fatigue following Epstein-Barr virus infection in adolescents: a randomised controlled trial.BMJ paediatrics open · 2020Article
- Cognitive-behavioural therapy combined with music therapy for chronic fatigue following Epstein-Barr virus infection in adolescents: a feasibility study.BMJ paediatrics open · 2020Article
- Editor's note on correction to CrawleyArchives of disease in childhood · 2019Article
- Cognitive and behavioural responses to symptoms in adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome: A case-control study nested within a cohort.Clinical child psychology and psychiatry · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
- Expression of concern · 2018-06-19Concerns/Issues about Data · Concerns/Issues about Results and/or Conclusions · Investigation by Journal/Publisher · Objections by Third Party ·
- Erratum issued
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveInvestigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Lightning Process (LP) in addition to specialist medical care (SMC) compared with SMC alone, for children with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)/myalgic encephalitis (ME).
designPragmatic randomised controlled open trial. Participants were randomly assigned to SMC or SMC+LP. Randomisation was minimised by age and gender.
settingSpecialist paediatric CFS/ME service. PATIENTS: 12-18 year olds with mild/moderate CFS/ME.
main outcome measuresThe primary outcome was the the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey Physical Function Subscale (SF-36-PFS) at 6 months. Secondary outcomes included pain, anxiety, depression, school attendance and cost-effectiveness from a health service perspective at 3, 6 and 12 months.
resultsWe recruited 100 participants, of whom 51 were randomised to SMC+LP. Data from 81 participants were analysed at 6 months. Physical function (SF-36-PFS) was better in those allocated SMC+LP (adjusted difference in means 12.5(95% CI 4.5 to 20.5), p=0.003) and this improved further at 12 months (15.1 (5.8 to 24.4), p=0.002). At 6 months, fatigue and anxiety were reduced, and at 12 months, fatigue, anxiety, depression and school attendance had improved in the SMC+LP arm. Results were similar following multiple imputation. SMC+LP was probably more cost-effective in the multiple imputation dataset (difference in means in net monetary benefit at 12 months £1474(95% CI £111 to £2836), p=0.034) but not for complete cases.
conclusionThe LP is effective and is probably cost-effective when provided in addition to SMC for mild/moderately affected adolescents with CFS/ME. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN81456207.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What 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.