ACTIVITY INTERVENTION FOR CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME

The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of the nurse delivered behavioral interventions of graded activity with cognitive therapy and graded activity alone in comparison to a cognitive therapy alone control condition in a target sample of 120 persons with CFS. This study will: 1) test the hypothesis that graded activity with cognitive therapy will yield significant improvements in physical and role functioning in comparison to the cognitive therapy alone control condition; and 2) test the hypothesis that graded activity alone will yield significant improvements in physical and role functioning in comparison to the cognitive therapy alone control condition. In addition, this study will test, as a secondary Aim, that graded activity alone will be as effective as graded activity with cognitive therapy in improving physical and role functioning in CFS. Since medical utilization rates for CFS patients are high and medical therapies for CFS have been largely unsuccessful, the study of a potentially effective behavioral intervention for the illness may offer an opportunity for a substantially improved quality of life in these debilitated patients.