back to article Internet therapy speeds chronic fatigue recovery

A Dutch experiment that offered kids aged 12-18 the chance to use online cognitive therapy tools to treat chronic fatigue has proved more effective than real world therapy sessions. The experiment saw researchers devise an online therapy tool that comes close to the kind of treatment delivered in 1:1 cognitive therapy sessions …

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  1. koolholio
    Alert

    What helps one may not help another

    Whilst its good to offer both, you should never put the distance of a computer as an advantage to encourage aspergers syndrome or simillar! Replacing the 'real thing' with a virtual alternative is like a virtual machine replacing the physical computer you run it on! CAN'T BE DONE!

    Studies all around the world have shown kids of the younger generations spend too much time on the computer as it is, whilst its a good use of time on the computer, how can one also ensure it is confidential and 'secure' from virus ridden/monitored devices!?

    WIll kids realise the dangers of multiple sources of counselling etc? What would prevent them from doing that, or a copycat providing such a service!? Trust is important...

    Would group therapy 'come close to the kind of treatment delivered in 1 to 1 CBT sessions'... Lets not become naive when it comes to mental health! Think of the children and dont encourage it!

    1. Ilsa Loving
      Trollface

      Re: What helps one may not help another

      Here here! Why, there is a fantastic website called Citizens United Negating Technology (For Love And People's Safety) that is entirely relevant to this discussion:

      http://www.citizensunitednegatingtechnology.com/

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Chronic Fatigue?

    I'd take this reasearch with a large grain of salt for a variety of reasons. First one must properly define Chronic Fatigue in medical terms. Laziness is NOT chronic fatigue. Depression is NOT chronic fatigue. Fybromyalgia is NOT chronic fatigue. Boredom is NOT chronic fatigue. There is a detailed medical process used to differentiate Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, (CFS), from the other illnesses. You can't talk someone out of chronic fatigue with cognitive behavior because CFS is not a cognitive illness. It is believed to be a immune system dysfunction but at this time no one has identified the true issues that cause CFS nor is there any known cure for CFS or even effective treatment to ease the symptoms. It's a disservice to perptuate this "research" as being for CFS when it's actually for some other illness, not CFS.

    1. Jack 4

      Re: Chronic Fatigue?

      As someone who has had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for the last 15 years, I'd have to agree with this. Anything that tries to label CFS as being treatable by "cognitive therapy" is just another attempt to push the "all in your head" agenda, and does a great disservice to people who are actually suffering with serious, debilitating illness for which there is currently no cure and no real treatment.

      1. Ian Stephenson

        @ Jack 4 Re: Chronic Fatigue?

        Just a thought,

        Try cutting out all wheat and gluten for a couple of weeks - CFS like symptoms crop up in Coeliac Disease too.

        Warning - you'll probably feel like shit for the first week!

  3. Eggle
    Thumb Down

    psychobabble FTW

    More propaganda, "enhanced" results and zero critical oversight from the psyche brigade while real biomedical research results of an organic illness and immune dysfunction go ignored. Plenty of patient experiences show CBT's about effective at treating ME/CFS as it is at treating heart disease, i.e. useless. No one who hasn't been misdiagnosed gets cured of this disease with CBT.

    But guess what, if you do a bit of investigation, you often find a lot of pysches working in this area are getting paid handsomely by health insurance companies. Guess also what, the health insurance industry saves millions a year by denying claims from ME sufferers on because it's treated as psychological, not the auto immune disease it is.

    Go figure. An unholy alliance that puts the block on further biomedical research and keeps sick children and adults sick.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Chronic Fatigue is a symptom, not an illness

    It may seem like tinfoil hat stuff to those not embroiled in dealing with the NHS and Atos, but there is a pressure from US Heath insurance companies to have 'Chronic Fatigue' defined as an illness and a psychological one, because it means they don't have to pay out.

    Since at least 20o1 those same companies have been advising Westminster Governments of both stripes, leading o the situation that Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, listed as a physiological ailment by the World Health Organisation and treated as such everywhere else in the world, even Scotland, in England is deemed psychological.

    NICE only mandates psychological treatments, as if ME, which has Chronic Fatigue as a major symptom, so CBT and GET (which actually proves harmful) are the only treatments offered.

    CBT can be useful, but only to help the person understand their limits, which in the case of ME are not fixed. Repeatability of a task is usually not possible with ME, which, when wedded to the varying problems in comprehension, lack of fine motor control and grip & 'decision crisises' make this orely osychological approach so much hogwash.

    I suspect, however, that this is where this researcher is heading. A nice package to sell to Health Insurance and NICE in lieu of actual help .

    (my partner has had ME for 25 years, turning from an active, intelliigent, interested, sporty person into someone who can't concentrate even on something so mind-numbing ly LCD as Top Gear and had to give up activities and work. I am not a doctor)

  5. James Howat
    Stop

    Surely, it matters not a jot what kind of condition CFS is, as long as you can measure the outcome of the trial? If a therapy consisting of jumping up and down with a banana on your head produces good results, then it should be considered in that light, with the clear understanding that the original symptoms are not caused by lack of head-bananas. Once we know what works, we can investigate why it works, and learn more about the causes of the condition.

    Having said that, this study looks like it needs a hefty portion of salt. Any new, interesting, involving technique will generally produce better results - it doesn't matter whether the problem is psychological or physical.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It does matter actually

      As I wrote earlier there is a political/business involvement in this sort of research

      Those studies that NICE that were supposed to be applicable to sufferers of ME, using trials with CFS sufferers, well, they turned out not to have sufferers of ME in. Other research has been shown to be fudged and the results put to dubious purposes, so I am wary of this

      I have undertaken CBT, by the way, in Stress and Pain management, and as a mental device to help you out it can be of use, but so can a nice long chat with someone with a bit of experience

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If it can be cured with CBT, it isn't actual CFS

    CBT and other exercise-centric treatments lead to dangerous crashes in ME sufferers. It is literally barbaric. In severe cases like that of my partner, the sufferer has the constitution of a cancer or AIDS patient in the last few weeks of their life. My partner has been like this for over eight years.

    Severe CFS/ME can be characterised by non-refreshing sleep, physical exhaustion, reduced tolerance for light and sound, almost-continuous headaches, swollen joints (think arthritis), swollen lymph glands, pain and more - even hair loss. It can feel like having a cold all the time. If you actually get a cold or flu or stomach bug on top of it, it can be a prolonged ordeal which complicates the other symptoms.

    The great news for CFS sufferers is that anti-immune (monoclonal antibody) drugs like Rituximab have in the last few months been shown to have dramatic rates of success against CFS, opening the way for scientific progress in this area. I can't wait.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mis-diagnosis as usual

    Chronic Fatigue is a biological illness and can not be cured via CBT or an internet program that addresses emotional issues. Those treatments may help the children in this study but those children do not have chronic fatigue - the debilitating illness defined by the medical community worldwide, which is immune system based. There are many disorders that resemble chronic fatigue that must be eliminated before a proper chronic fatigue diagnosis can be determined. Cognative therapy doesn't cure chronic fatigue any more than it cures cancer. It addresses related emotional issues, not the fundamental biological illness.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There are many illnesses that mimic chronic fatigue

    Celiac Disease, food allergies in general, environment stimulents, sleep disorders and many other illnesses can mimic chronic fatigue. These all must be ruled out in determining one truly has CFS.

    Cognitive behavior treatment is helpful in treating CFS related emotional issues but does not address the root cause of CFS. Exercise therapy can actually be devastating for some CFS patients and make them bed-ridden for weeks. Clearly anyone who is cured from CBT or exercise did not truly have CFS, they had something that mimics the symptoms of CFS.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_fatigue_syndrome

  9. Graham Marsden
    Happy

    Hello boss...

    ... no, I'm not wasting time on the net when I should be working, I'm undergoing chronic fatigue recovery!

  10. John A Blackley

    Given that........

    psychology is only astrology with better documentation I don't see the value in this.

    And 12 to 18 year-old kids suffering from 'chronic fatigue syndrome'? When I was that age, the cure was a kick in the @rse and a yell of, "Get moving you lazy little bugger!"

  11. Boris S.

    As AC posted above if it can be cured by CBT, it ain't CFS

    There is no known cure for CFS which is a terrible illness. If you have ever seen people with CFS you'd know the difference between them and someone who is "tired". People with CFS will do almost anything to try and recover from this illness. If CBT and exercise could cure CFS no one would have CFS for years or even decades. Brain scans can actually show the different active areas between people with depression and CFS. It's quite interesting actually but not enough is known about CFS at this point to provide much help to those who suffer.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wish

    I'd have been cured 20 years ago if CBT was the solution to CFS.

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