Comment on: Chronic fatigue in general practice: is counselling as good as cognitive behaviour therapy? A UK randomised trial. [Br J Gen Pract. 2001]
Ridsdale and colleagues state that there is evidence that cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is effective for patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), but fail to point out that such evidence derives only from studies performed in the United Kingdom, where CFS is diagnosed on the basis of the Oxford criteria. There is no evidence that CBT is beneficial to patients fulfilling the Australian criteria for CFS or the American ones, namely, the original criteria of the Centers for Disease Control.
You can read the rest of this comment here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1313986/pdf/11458489.pdf
Source: Baschetti R. Cognitive behaviour therapy and chronic fatigue syndrome. Br J Gen Pract. 2001 Apr;51(465):316-7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1313986/ (Full comment)