Effect of physician-recommended treatment on mental health practitioners' attributions for chronic fatigue syndrome

Objective: To evaluate whether differing treatment recommendations for chro nic fatigue syndrome (CFS) by physicians influence attributions about CFS a mong mental health practitioners. Participants and Study Design: Ninety-thr ee mental health practitioners (social work interns, clinical psychology tr ainees, licensed clinical social workers, and licensed clinical psychologis ts) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions. All groups read the same c ase study of a person diagnosed with CFS, with the only difference between groups being the type of treatment recommended by a physician. The treatmen t conditions included a drug trial (Ampligen) or 1 of 2 differing psychothe rapy approaches, cognitive-behavior therapy with graded activity or cogniti ve coping skills therapy. Main Outcome Measures: Attributions regarding the illness, including impressions about its etiology, diagnostic accuracy, se verity, prognosis, and the expected outcome of the proposed treatment; fami liarity with CFS. Results: Participants in the 3 groups did not differ with respect to their prior familiarity with CFS. Participants who read the cas e study proposing treatment with Ampligen were more likely to report that t he patient was correctly diagnosed and more likely to perceive the patient as disabled than those whose case study described cognitive-behavioral ther apy with graded activity as the treatment. Conclusions: Results of this inv estigation support the hypothesis that physician recommendations for CFS tr eatment can influence subsequent attributions about a patient's illness amo ng mental health practitioners.