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The feasibility and acceptability of conducting a trial of specialist medical care and the Lightning Process in children with chronic fatigue syndrome: feasibility randomized controlled trial (SMILE study)

BACKGROUND: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is relatively common in children with limited evidence for treatment. The Phil Parker Lightning Process (LP) is a trademarked intervention, which >250 children use annually. There are no reported studies investigating th...

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Autores principales: Crawley, Esther, Mills, Nicola, Beasant, Lucy, Johnson, Debbie, Collin, Simon M, Deans, Zuzana, White, Kate, Montgomery, Alan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4235039/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24304689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1745-6215-14-415
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author Crawley, Esther
Mills, Nicola
Beasant, Lucy
Johnson, Debbie
Collin, Simon M
Deans, Zuzana
White, Kate
Montgomery, Alan
author_facet Crawley, Esther
Mills, Nicola
Beasant, Lucy
Johnson, Debbie
Collin, Simon M
Deans, Zuzana
White, Kate
Montgomery, Alan
author_sort Crawley, Esther
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is relatively common in children with limited evidence for treatment. The Phil Parker Lightning Process (LP) is a trademarked intervention, which >250 children use annually. There are no reported studies investigating the effectiveness or possible side effects of LP. METHODS: The trial population was drawn from the Bath and Bristol NHS specialist paediatric CFS or ME service. The study was designed as a pilot randomized trial with children (aged 12 to 18 years) comparing specialist medical care with specialist medical care plus the Lightning Process. Integrated qualitative methodology was used to explore the feasibility and acceptability of the recruitment, randomization and interventions. RESULTS: A total of 56 children were recruited from 156 eligible children (1 October 2010 to 16 June 2012). Recruitment, randomization and both interventions were feasible and acceptable. Participants suggested changes to improve feasibility and acceptability and we incorporated the following in the trial protocol: stopped collecting 6-week outcomes; introduced a second reminder letter; used phone calls to collect primary outcomes from nonresponders; informed participants about different approaches of each intervention and changed our recommendation for the primary outcome for the full study from school attendance to disability (SF-36 physical function subscale) and fatigue (Chalder Fatigue Scale). CONCLUSIONS: Conducting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to investigate an alternative treatment such as LP is feasible and acceptable for children with CFS or ME. Feasibility studies that incorporate qualitative methodology enable changes to be made to trial protocols to improve acceptability to participants. This is likely to improve recruitment rate and trial retention. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Feasibility study first randomization: 29 September 2010. Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN81456207 (31 July 2012). Full trial first randomization: 19 September 2012.
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spelling pubmed-42350392014-11-19 The feasibility and acceptability of conducting a trial of specialist medical care and the Lightning Process in children with chronic fatigue syndrome: feasibility randomized controlled trial (SMILE study) Crawley, Esther Mills, Nicola Beasant, Lucy Johnson, Debbie Collin, Simon M Deans, Zuzana White, Kate Montgomery, Alan Trials Research BACKGROUND: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is relatively common in children with limited evidence for treatment. The Phil Parker Lightning Process (LP) is a trademarked intervention, which >250 children use annually. There are no reported studies investigating the effectiveness or possible side effects of LP. METHODS: The trial population was drawn from the Bath and Bristol NHS specialist paediatric CFS or ME service. The study was designed as a pilot randomized trial with children (aged 12 to 18 years) comparing specialist medical care with specialist medical care plus the Lightning Process. Integrated qualitative methodology was used to explore the feasibility and acceptability of the recruitment, randomization and interventions. RESULTS: A total of 56 children were recruited from 156 eligible children (1 October 2010 to 16 June 2012). Recruitment, randomization and both interventions were feasible and acceptable. Participants suggested changes to improve feasibility and acceptability and we incorporated the following in the trial protocol: stopped collecting 6-week outcomes; introduced a second reminder letter; used phone calls to collect primary outcomes from nonresponders; informed participants about different approaches of each intervention and changed our recommendation for the primary outcome for the full study from school attendance to disability (SF-36 physical function subscale) and fatigue (Chalder Fatigue Scale). CONCLUSIONS: Conducting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to investigate an alternative treatment such as LP is feasible and acceptable for children with CFS or ME. Feasibility studies that incorporate qualitative methodology enable changes to be made to trial protocols to improve acceptability to participants. This is likely to improve recruitment rate and trial retention. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Feasibility study first randomization: 29 September 2010. Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN81456207 (31 July 2012). Full trial first randomization: 19 September 2012. BioMed Central 2013-12-05 /pmc/articles/PMC4235039/ /pubmed/24304689 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1745-6215-14-415 Text en Copyright © 2013 Crawley et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Crawley, Esther
Mills, Nicola
Beasant, Lucy
Johnson, Debbie
Collin, Simon M
Deans, Zuzana
White, Kate
Montgomery, Alan
The feasibility and acceptability of conducting a trial of specialist medical care and the Lightning Process in children with chronic fatigue syndrome: feasibility randomized controlled trial (SMILE study)
title The feasibility and acceptability of conducting a trial of specialist medical care and the Lightning Process in children with chronic fatigue syndrome: feasibility randomized controlled trial (SMILE study)
title_full The feasibility and acceptability of conducting a trial of specialist medical care and the Lightning Process in children with chronic fatigue syndrome: feasibility randomized controlled trial (SMILE study)
title_fullStr The feasibility and acceptability of conducting a trial of specialist medical care and the Lightning Process in children with chronic fatigue syndrome: feasibility randomized controlled trial (SMILE study)
title_full_unstemmed The feasibility and acceptability of conducting a trial of specialist medical care and the Lightning Process in children with chronic fatigue syndrome: feasibility randomized controlled trial (SMILE study)
title_short The feasibility and acceptability of conducting a trial of specialist medical care and the Lightning Process in children with chronic fatigue syndrome: feasibility randomized controlled trial (SMILE study)
title_sort feasibility and acceptability of conducting a trial of specialist medical care and the lightning process in children with chronic fatigue syndrome: feasibility randomized controlled trial (smile study)
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4235039/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24304689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1745-6215-14-415
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