Graded exercise therapy compared to activity management for paediatric [CFS/ME]: pragmatic randomized controlled trial, 2024, Gaunt, Crawley et al.

[tornandfrayed]

From the supplementary material File 1

SF-36 PF scores in the 2 groups both showed something interesting - it looks like the small proportion of particpants who only attended 1 or 2 sessions improved significantly by about 20 points in the 6 months, but the ones who attended 3 or more sessions showed no change.

Participants attending ≤2 treatment sessions

6 months assessment

GET 63.6 (22.7), 18

AM 76.0 (19.6), 10

Baseline assessment

GET 44.4 (20.0), 17

AM 58.3 (23.7), 9

Participants attending 3+ treatment sessions

6 months assessment

GET 54.1 (23.3), 84

AM 55.7 (26.0), 87

Baseline assessment

GET 57.1 (24.0), 83

AM 55.6 (23.1), 86

One could conclude the fewer sessions the better, or that those improving anyway didn't see the need to keep attending.
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It's interesting too that there's a marked difference at baseline between the GET and AM groups who attended 2 or less sessions. The AM group slightly better than the participants as a whole, while GET group is a lot worse. Maybe just due to chance, but could be a different dynamic in not continuing to attend between the two groups. The GET group too sick to attend, while the AM a bit better, possibly recovering and what was offered under AM was similar to what they were doing anyway.