Now that chronic fatigue syndrome has officially been recognised as an illness, sufferers can not only expect a more sympathetic response from healthcare professionals but more effective interventions. Angus Forsyth discusses some of the studies into how to treat this syndrome

Following the publication of the Department of Health’s (2002) report into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), sufferers can at last begin to feel that they have a legitimate illness and be treated seriously and sympathetically by a range of health professionals. This is reflected in a qualitative study by Clements et al (1997) of 66 patients with CFS to investigate patients’ beliefs about the controllability of their illness, and grouped themes which shared a common meaning to provide three categories for illness attributions: physical and disease factors were most frequently endorsed (97 per cent); followed by social stressors (47 per cent); and activity and lifestyle factors (15 per cent). An interesting byproduct of the study was that a quarter of respondents offered an opinion of what was not the cause of the syndrome, with the two main categories endorsed as being not due to psychological or lifestyle factors. Their perceptions of psychological causes were that the symptoms were imaginary or in the mind, or that they were the client’s fault. This results in clients feeling misunderstood and mistrustful of health professionals.