Is the efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation influenced by baseline severity of fatigue symptom in patients with [ME], 2019, Yang

The patients were hospitalised for 3 or 4 days for the treatments. Surely the effect of improvement in fatigue could be from resting more while in hospital.
They really needed to have a randomised control group having exactly the same hospital care and sham treatment, then compare results between groups.

 

Same point as Trish, just more words. But I've written them, so will post anyway.

Oh, good grief. A treatment desperately in search of an illness.

The Brief Fatigue Inventory asks you to rate your fatigue (i.e. weariness and tiredness) now and for the last 24 hours on a scale of 1 to 10. If you took any group of people and had them prepare for a 3 or 4 day stay at the hospital, they would probably turn up a bit weary. Packing, making arrangements for the care of the children or the dog, getting to the hospital...

Then have them sit around for three or four days, with meals provided and no obligations. Give them any treatment you care to dream up that involves reclining for 18 minutes at a time. Ask them to rate their fatigue again at the end of the three or four days. And, like magic, there's a response to the treatment!

To be fair, on average, gains were maintained over the two weeks following discharge, but there's a whole host of expectation and researcher pleasing potentially at work there. Out of the 21, after two weeks 6 got worse or essentially stayed the same with respect to baseline BFI and 3 were lost to followup.