Somebody from Denmark asked me to look over this for them. They said it has got positive media coverage there. Prof Fink wants the Ministry of health to make this the standard treatment for functional somatic syndromes in Denmark. However I remain busy with stuff (which has meant I have participated little in Phoenix Rising for many weeks now) so can't read it at the moment so I thought I would throw it out to people here. 56% of the participants had CFS. (Formatting went weird and too busy to spend any more time on it)
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Cognitive-behavioural group treatment for a range of functional somatic syndromes: randomised trial.
Br J Psychiatry.2012 Apr 26. [Epub ahead of print]
Source
Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Many specialty-specific functional somatic syndrome diagnoses exist to describe people who are experiencing so-called medically unexplained symptoms.
Although cognitive-behavioural therapy can be effective in the management of such syndromes, it is rarely available.
A cognitive-behavioural therapy suitable for group treatment of people with different functional somatic syndromes could address this problem.
AIMS:
To test the efficacy of a cognitive-behavioural therapy (Specialised Treatment for Severe Bodily Distress Syndromes, STreSS) designed for patients with a range of severe functional somatic syndromes.
METHOD:
A randomised controlled trial (clinicaltrials.gov, NCT00132197) compared STreSS (nine 3.5 h sessions over 4 months, n = 54) with enhanced usual care (management by primary care physician or medical specialist, n = 66).
The primary outcome was improvement in aggregate score on subscales of the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (physical functioning, bodily pain and vitality) at 16 months.
RESULTS:
Participants receiving STreSS had a greater improvement on the primary outcome (adjusted mean difference 4.0, 95% CI 1.4-6.6, P = 0.002) and on most secondary outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS:
In the management of functional somatic syndromes, a cognitive-behavioural group treatment was more effective than enhanced usual care.