Chronic fatigue syndrome: comparing outcomes in White British and Black and minority ethnic patients after cognitive-behavioural therapy.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is one of the most promising treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). It is unclear whether CBT is effective for Black and minority ethnic (BME) groups. AIMS: To assess the effectiveness of CBT in BME patients compared with White British patients presenting to a specialist CFS service. METHOD: Data from 67 (19.0%) BME participants and 285 (81.0%) White British participants referred to a specialist CFS service in the UK were collected at baseline and after CBT treatment. RESULTS: Pairwise comparisons revealed that both BME participants and White British participants significantly improved on measures of fatigue severity (P<0.001), physical functioning (P<0.001) and work/social adjustment (P<0.001). Independent samples t-tests showed that BME participants improved despite exhibiting significantly higher baseline damage beliefs (P = 0.009), catastrophising (P = 0.024), all-or-nothing behaviour (P = 0.036) and avoidance/resting behaviour (P = 0.001), compared with White British participants. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this study is the first to indicate that CBT is effective for treating CFS in a group of patients from diverse BME backgrounds.