To the Editor:

In “Wrong on Chronic Fatigue” (Sunday Review, March 19), Julie Rehmeyer and David Tuller rightly point out the overreach of claims that behavioral treatments of the illness lead to recovery.

Although such treatments are commonly used to improve quality of life in chronic medical illness, they are rarely controversial because full restoration of health is not claimed or expected. Recovery claims are problematic because they strongly suggest that the talk therapy treatments used are curative.

In the case of chronic fatigue syndrome, this implies that the illness is a matter of distorted perception and not reality. It is then only a small step to conclude that the search for medical intervention is unnecessary or even a waste of time.

Unfortunately, such views are widely shared among treating physicians. Thus, we have a million ill and debilitated patients who are medically underserved. This can be addressed with informed provider education linked to the emerging body of scientific research that shows promise to better understand the illness and to develop truly effective treatments.