While no clinical trial to date has specifically targeted fatigue , r and omized controlled trials , systematic review s , and meta-analyses indicate that treatment modalities studied in the context of other fibromyalgia symptoms could also improve fatigue .
Fatigue is a disabling , multifaceted symptom that is highly prevalent and stubbornly persistent .
Although fatigue is a frequent complaint among patients with fibromyalgia , it has not received the same attention as pain .
Reasons for this include lack of st and ardized nomenclature to communicate about fatigue , lack of evidence -based guidelines for fatigue assessment , and a deficiency in effective treatment strategies .
Fatigue does not occur in isolation ; rather , it is present concurrently in varying severity with other fibromyalgia symptoms such as chronic widespread pain , unrefreshing sleep , anxiety , depression , cognitive difficulties , and so on .
Survey-based and preliminary mechanistic studies indicate that multiple symptoms feed into fatigue and it may be associated with a variety of physiological mechanisms .
A six-month double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial of duloxetine for the treatment of fibromyalgia
Objective : Assess the efficacy of  duloxetine 60/120 mg ( N = 162 ) once daily compared with  placebo ( N = 168 ) in the treatment of patients with fibromyalgia , during six months of treatment . Methods : This was a phase-III , r and omized , double-blind , placebo-controlled , parallel-group study assessing the efficacy and safety of duloxetine . Results : There were no significant differences between treatment groups on the co- primary efficacy outcome measures , change in the Brief Pain Inventory ( BPI ) average pain severity from baseline to endpoint ( P = 0.053 ) and the Patient ’s Global Impressions of Improvement ( PGI-I ) at endpoint ( P = 0.073 ) . Duloxetine-treated patients improved significantly more than placebo-treated patients on the Fibromyalgia Impact Question naire pain score , BPI least pain score and average interference score , Clinical Global Impressions of Severity scale , area under the curve of pain relief , Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory mental fatigue dimension , Beck Depression Inventory-II total score , and 36-item Short Form Health Survey mental component summary and mental health score . Nausea was the most common treatment-emergent adverse event in the duloxetine group . Overall discontinuation rates were similar between groups . Conclusions : Although duloxetine 60/120 mg/day failed to demonstrate significant improvement over placebo on the co- primary outcome measures , in this supportive study , duloxetine demonstrated significant improvement compared with placebo on numerous secondary measures
While no clinical trial to date has specifically targeted fatigue , r and omized controlled trials , systematic review s , and meta-analyses indicate that treatment modalities studied in the context of other fibromyalgia symptoms could also improve fatigue .
Fatigue is a disabling , multifaceted symptom that is highly prevalent and stubbornly persistent .
Although fatigue is a frequent complaint among patients with fibromyalgia , it has not received the same attention as pain .
Reasons for this include lack of st and ardized nomenclature to communicate about fatigue , lack of evidence -based guidelines for fatigue assessment , and a deficiency in effective treatment strategies .
Fatigue does not occur in isolation ; rather , it is present concurrently in varying severity with other fibromyalgia symptoms such as chronic widespread pain , unrefreshing sleep , anxiety , depression , cognitive difficulties , and so on .
Survey-based and preliminary mechanistic studies indicate that multiple symptoms feed into fatigue and it may be associated with a variety of physiological mechanisms .