Abstract:
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently published its draft updated guideline on the diagnosis and management of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). NICE concluded that ME/CFS is a complex multisystem chronic medical condition for which graded exercise therapy should not be used and cognitive behavioural therapy is only a supportive therapy and not a treatment or cure. The draft guidance also highlighted the unreliability of subjective outcome measures in non-blinded trials. High quality randomised controlled ME/CFS trials are now needed to find pharmacological treatments that lead to substantial objective improvement and restore the ability to work.
Source: Vink M, Vink-Niese A. The draft updated NICE guidance for ME/CFS highlights the unreliability of subjective outcome measures in non-blinded trials. J Health Psychol. 2021 Jan 28:1359105321990810. doi: 10.1177/1359105321990810. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33506707. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33506707/