BMJ 1998;316:796-800 ( 14 March )

Editorials

Putting the rest cure to rest---again

Rest has no place in treating chronic fatigue 

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

"Go home and rest" is still the advice given to many patients who complain of chronic fatigue. The refrain is echoed in self help books and magazines and adopted by many patients. What are the origins of rest as a treatment, does it work, and what evidence is there on which to base our advice to patients?

Chronic fatigue syndromes are not new.1 Victorian physicians diagnosed them as neurasthenia and routinely prescribed rest. This approach was typified by Silas Weir Mitchell's "rest cure,"2 which was so popular as to be described as "the greatest advance of which practical medicine can boast in the last quarter of the century."3 Despite such accolades, the popularity of the rest cure was short lived. By the turn of the century the same private clinics that once provided it were changing to more active treatments and to the newer psychotherapies.1 The years that followed saw . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

Treating chronic fatigue with exercise
Ellen Goudsmit
BMJ 1998 317: 599. [Extract] [Full Text]

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  • Allison, S. E. (2007). Self-Care Requirements for Activity and Rest: An Orem Nursing Focus. Nurs Sci Q 20: 68-76 [Abstract]  
  • Wright, B, Ashby, B, Beverley, D, Calvert, E, Jordan, J, Miles, J, Russell, I, Williams, C (2005). A feasibility study comparing two treatment approaches for chronic fatigue syndrome in adolescents. Arch. Dis. Child. 90: 369-372 [Full text]  
  • Goudsmit, E. (1998). Treating chronic fatigue with exercise. BMJ 317: 599a-599 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Put The Rest Cure To Rest -GRADUALLY
Sherry Salyers
bmj.com, 12 Aug 1998 [Full text]
Mild activity and CFS
David Everitt
bmj.com, 21 Sep 1998 [Full text]
More Questions than Answers
Crawford McKelvey
bmj.com, 22 Sep 1998 [Full text]
Poor science
Mark Savill
bmj.com, 10 Jun 1999 [Full text]
Real Risk of Damage
Andrew W Weaver
bmj.com, 1 Jun 2003 [Full text]
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