PACE trial investigators respond to David Tuller

Professors Peter White, Trudie Chalder and Michael Sharpe (co-principal investigators of the PACE trial) respond to the three blog posts by David Tuller, published here on 21st, 22nd and 23rd October 2015, about the PACE trial. Overview The PACE trial was a randomized controlled trial of four non-pharmacological treatments for 641 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) attending secondary care clinics in the United Kingdom (UK) (http://www.wolfson.qmul.ac.uk/current-projects/pace-trial) The trial found that individually delivered cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET) were more effective than both adaptive pacing therapy (APT), when added to specialist medical care (SMC), and SMC alone. The trial also found that CBT and GET were cost-effective, safe, and were about three times more likely to result in a patient recovering than the other two treatments. There are a number of published systematic reviews and meta-analyses that support these findings from both before and after the PACE trial results were published (Whiting et al, 2001, Edmonds et al, 2004, Chambers et al, 2006, Malouff et al, 2008, Price et al, 2008, Castell et al, 2011, Larun et al, 2015, Marques et al, 2015, Smith et al, 2015). We have published all the therapist and patient manuals used in the trial, which can be down-loaded from the trial website (http://www.wolfson.qmul.ac.uk/current-projects/pace-trial). We will only address David Tuller’s main criticisms. Most of th...
Source: virology blog - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Commentary Information adaptive pacing therapy CFS chronic fatigue syndrome clinical trial cognitive behavior therapy Dave Tuller exercise graded exercise therapy mecfs myalgic encephalomyelitis outcome PACE trial recovery Source Type: blogs