Residential rehabilitation courses in self-directed illness management offer a potentially useful patient-centered and multidis-ciplinary therapeutic option for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. A retrospective survey of the data from the courses run by Westcare UK between 1995 and 1998 was undertaken to give a preliminary evaluation of outcomes and acceptability. The outcome results, for 49 participants, show improvements, at 12 months, on the Fatigue and Emotional Distress subscales of the PFRS. (Fatigue: before course: mean 3.66, s.d. 1.14; 12 months later: mean 3.11, s.d. 1.57; F(l,48) = 11.19 p < 0.005. Emotional distress: before course: mean 2.53, s.d. 1.46; 12 months later: mean 2.04, s.d. 1.39; F(l, 48) = 5.96 p < 0.01.) Participants also reported a high level of general satisfaction with the course: 89.4% gave a rating of five or six, out of six. These results describe both long and short-term benefits, and support the continued use of these courses and the implementation of a further more rigorous Study.