OBJECTIVE The present pilot study was designed to test the effects of a 12 week group-based Cognitive Behavioral Stress Management (CBSM) intervention on stress, quality of life, and symptoms in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). We hypothesized that participants randomized to CBSM would report improvements in perceived stress, mood, quality of life, and CFS symptomatology from pre-to-post intervention compared to those receiving a psychoeducational (PE) seminar control. METHOD We recruited 69 persons with a bonafide diagnosis of CFS and randomized 44 to CBSM and 25 to PE. Participants completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS),Profile of Mood States (POMS), Quality of Life Inventory (QOLI), and a CDC-based CFS symptom checklist pre- and post-intervention. RESULTS Repeated Measures ANOVA revealed a significant group × time interaction for PSS, POMS-total mood disturbance, and QOLIscores, such that participants in CBSM evidenced greater improvements than those in PE. Participants in CBSM also reported decreases in severity of CFS symptoms vs. those in PE. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest that CBSM is beneficial for managing distress, improving quality of life, and alleviating CFS symptom severity.

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Stunkard and Messick's (1985) Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) has been criticized as being statistically and conceptually flawed. In the present study, the interrelationships among the factors of the TFEQ and their association with theoretically relevant predictors of restrained eating were examined. The TFEQ was found to consist of 2 relatively independent second-order factors: Cognitive Restraint and Impulsive Eating. These second-order factors were predicted by precipitants of eating and aspects of restraint in a conceptually reasonable manner.The Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) was designed to measure three dimensions of eating: cognitive restraint, disinhibition of control, and hunger (Stunkard, 1981;Stunkard & Messick, 1985). Although the TFEQ reportedly rectified certain inadequacies of the Restraint Scale (Herman & Mack, 1975), an instrument designed to identify chronic dieters who may be susceptible to binge eating, it has been criticized on several points. The TFEQ reportedly does not measure a unitary construct; violates certain theoretical assumptions regarding the relationships among restraint, disinhibition, and hunger; and does not predict which subjects will binge in experimental tests of counterregulatory eating (Heatherton, Herman, Polivy, King, & McGree, 1988).Given these criticisms, we attempted to achievePortions of this research were supported by National Institute on Alcoholism Grant RO1-AA07595 to R. Lorraine Collins. We wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.

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