Tired, weak, or in need of rest: fatigue among general practice attenders.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES--To determine the prevalence and associations of symptoms of fatigue. DESIGN--Questionnaire survey. SETTING--London general practice. PARTICIPANTS--611 General practice attenders. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Scores on a fatigue questionnaire and reasons given for fatigue. RESULTS--10.2% Of men (17/167) and 10.6% of women (47/444) had substantial fatigue for one month or more. Age, occupation, and marital status exerted minor effects. Subjects attributed fatigue equally to physical and non-physical causes. Physical ill health, including viral infection, was associated with more severe fatigue. Women rather than men blamed family responsibilities for their fatigue. The profile of persistent fatigue did not differ from that of short duration. Only one person met criteria for the chronic fatigue syndrome. CONCLUSIONS--Fatigue is a common complaint among general practice attenders and can be severe. Patients may attribute this to physical, psychological, and social stress.
Full text
Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (876K), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References.
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- HAMMOND EC. SOME PRELIMINARY FINDINGS ON PHYSICAL COMPLAINTS FROM A PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF 1,064,004 MEN AND WOMEN. Am J Public Health Nations Health. 1964 Jan;54:11–23. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Chen MK. The epidemiology of self-perceived fatigue among adults. Prev Med. 1986 Jan;15(1):74–81. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kroenke K, Wood DR, Mangelsdorff AD, Meier NJ, Powell JB. Chronic fatigue in primary care. Prevalence, patient characteristics, and outcome. JAMA. 1988 Aug 19;260(7):929–934. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ingham JG, Miller PM. Symptom prevalence and severity in a general practice population. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1979 Sep;33(3):191–198. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Havard CW. Lassitude. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1985 Apr 20;290(6476):1161–1162. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Taerk GS, Toner BB, Salit IE, Garfinkel PE, Ozersky S. Depression in patients with neuromyasthenia (benign myalgic encephalomyelitis). Int J Psychiatry Med. 1987;17(1):49–56. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Manu P, Matthews DA, Lane TJ. The mental health of patients with a chief complaint of chronic fatigue. A prospective evaluation and follow-up. Arch Intern Med. 1988 Oct;148(10):2213–2217. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kruesi MJ, Dale J, Straus SE. Psychiatric diagnoses in patients who have chronic fatigue syndrome. J Clin Psychiatry. 1989 Feb;50(2):53–56. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Wessely S, Powell R. Fatigue syndromes: a comparison of chronic "postviral" fatigue with neuromuscular and affective disorders. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1989 Aug;52(8):940–948. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hickie I, Lloyd A, Wakefield D, Parker G. The psychiatric status of patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome. Br J Psychiatry. 1990 Apr;156:534–540. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- David AS, Wessely S, Pelosi AJ. Postviral fatigue syndrome: time for a new approach. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1988 Mar 5;296(6623):696–699. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Holmes GP, Kaplan JE, Gantz NM, Komaroff AL, Schonberger LB, Straus SE, Jones JF, Dubois RE, Cunningham-Rundles C, Pahwa S, et al. Chronic fatigue syndrome: a working case definition. Ann Intern Med. 1988 Mar;108(3):387–389. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Behan PO, Behan WM, Bell EJ. The postviral fatigue syndrome--an analysis of the findings in 50 cases. J Infect. 1985 May;10(3):211–222. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Dowsett EG, Ramsay AM, McCartney RA, Bell EJ. Myalgic encephalomyelitis--a persistent enteroviral infection? Postgrad Med J. 1990 Jul;66(777):526–530. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Dorozynski A. AIDS priority dispute goes on. BMJ. 1990 Mar 31;300(6728):832–832. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Calder BD, Warnock PJ, McCartney RA, Bell EJ. Coxsackie B viruses and the post-viral syndrome: a prospective study in general practice. J R Coll Gen Pract. 1987 Jan;37(294):11–14. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Manu P, Lane TJ, Matthews DA. The frequency of the chronic fatigue syndrome in patients with symptoms of persistent fatigue. Ann Intern Med. 1988 Oct 1;109(7):554–556. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
