The ‘Cognitive Behavioural Model’ of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: critique of a flawed model, by Keith Geraghty, Leonard Jason, Madison Sunnquist, David Tuller, Charlotte Blease & Charles Adeniji in Journal of Health Psychology, April 23 2019
Review abstract:
Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis is a debilitating illness that greatly impacts the lives of sufferers. A cognitive behavioural model attempts to explain illness onset and continuance with a hypothesis that the illness is perpetuated by patients’ irrational beliefs and avoidance behaviours. This theory underpins the promotion of cognitive behavioural therapy, a treatment that aims to change beliefs and behaviours.
This paper reports on a detailed review of the cognitive behavioural model (CBM). Our review finds that the model lacks high-quality evidential support, conflicts with accounts given by most patients, and fails to account for accumulating biological evidence of pathological and physiological abnormalities found in patients. There is little scientific credibility in the claim that psycho-behavioural therapies are a primary treatment for this illness.
Conclusion:
In this article, we reviewed the CBM of ME/CFS. This model is often cited in the literature as a model to guide clinical practice and treatment of this illness. We find this model to be primarily an idealised narrative model. It exists as a dogmatic model favoured by model promoters. Our review exposes stark weaknesses, inconsistencies and contradictions, both in its theoretical underpinnings and the research said to prove model validity. Our findings suggest the CBM is not fit for purpose, as it poorly reflects the accounts given by patients and it ignores the wealth of evidence showing biological, immune and neurological dysfunction in ME/CFS.
Given that the CBM is cited as the basis for CBT and GET interventions, there is an urgent need for clinicians, therapists and health providers to review this treatment paradigm. Our findings help explain why so many patients reject psychotherapy. An alternative model should be formulated to better explain the biological factors that predispose, precipitate and perpetuate the illness. An explanatory model needs to closely resemble illness pathogenesis and provide logic-driven linkages between factors, including patients’ symptoms and illness behaviours.
