Exploring ACT as a treatment for children and young people with CFS/ME who have not yet fully recovered after 1 year.

A qualitative study exploring attitudes toward Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a treatment for children and young people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) who have not yet fully recovered after 12 months of treatment.

CFS/ME is a severely disabling condition. Current evidence-based treatments offered to children and young people with CFS/ME are: Activity Management (AM), Graded Exercise Therapy (GET), and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Fatigue (CBT-f). However, a significant proportion of young people who do not recover after 12 months of these treatments. There is some evidence that suggest another treatment, called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is likely to be effective in adults with CFS/ME. We want to investigate whether it could be an effective treatment for children and young people with CFS/ME too.

Therefore, this study aims to find out whether ACT is an acceptable and feasible treatment approach for children and young people with CFS/ME who have not fully recovered after 12 months of AM, GET or CBT-f. It is part of pre-trial work to help define the group of patients for whom ACT may be appropriate and help inform a trial to determine its efficacy.