Background: Use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is common among patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), but whether it is viewed as more or less effective than traditional medicine is unclear.
Purpose: To evaluate patients' level of functioning based on the types of treatments they report using (i.e., traditional-only, CAM-only, or a combination of both).
Methods: Participants were recruited from physician referrals and media sources (newspaper, support groups), and 97 participants were retained for this analysis. Based on self-report, individuals were divided into three groups: using CAM-only (N=27), traditional medicine-only (N=22), or a combination of both treatments (N=58).
Results: Social functioning was significant (p<.01), with post-hoc analyses indicating significantly better social functioning for individuals taking CAM-only in comparison to patients using traditional-only or a combination of traditional and CAM treatments. Significantly fewer participants (p<.01) using CAM-only had a current psychiatric diagnosis.
Conclusions: These findings suggest using CAM-only treatments in CFS is associated with higher social functioning and fewer current psychiatric diagnoses. The results support the need for research to fully evaluate how CAM may affect functioning among individuals with CFS.
Keywords: CAM; Myalgic encephalomyelitis; alternative medicine; chronic fatigue syndrome.