Brain training (cognitive behavioural therapy) seen as most cost-effective treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome

Pac­ing ‘not cost-effec­tive’ for CFS (NHS Choices):

Brain train­ing is most cost-effec­tive treat­ment for chron­ic fatigue syn­drome,” BBC News reports, while pac­ing ther­a­pies (learn­ing to live with­in lim­its) “offer lit­tle value”.

This news is based on research that aimed to deter­mine how cost-effec­tive four treat­ment options were for peo­ple with CFS. These were:

  • spe­cial­ist med­ical care for CFS
  • cog­ni­tive behav­iour­al ther­a­py (CBT) – a type of talk­ing therapy
  • grad­ed exer­cise ther­a­py – a struc­tured exer­cise pro­gramme that aims grad­u­al­ly to increase how long a per­son can exer­cise for
  • adap­tive pac­ing ther­a­py (often just referred to as ‘pac­ing’) – pac­ing is where a per­son with CFS is encour­aged to sched­ule in peri­ods of rest in their day-to-day activities”

To deter­mine the cost-effec­tive­ness, three main fac­tors were tak­en into account:

  • improve­ment in qual­i­ty of life
  • the cost of pro­vid­ing the treatment
  • the poten­tial sav­ings to society

Based on the sta­tis­ti­cal mod­els used by the researchers, CBT and grad­ed exer­cise ther­a­py were found to be most cost-effec­tive, while spe­cial­ist med­ical care and pac­ing were the least cost-effective.”

To learn more: 

1 Comment

  1. Lisa Tataryn on August 7, 2012 at 9:03

    CBT does­n’t address adren­al burnout typ­i­cal to chron­ic fatigue — the best results come from Neu­ro­feed­back com­bined with nutri­tion­al coun­sel­ing that focus­es on adren­al support.



About SharpBrains

SHARPBRAINS is an independent think-tank and consulting firm providing services at the frontier of applied neuroscience, health, leadership and innovation.
SHARPBRAINS es un think-tank y consultoría independiente proporcionando servicios para la neurociencia aplicada, salud, liderazgo e innovación.

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

Newsletter

Subscribe to our e-newsletter

* indicates required

Got the book?