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 .
Vulnerability to stress among women in chronic pain from fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis davis et al. stress vulnerability
In two investigations , we studied vulnerability to the negative effects of stress among women in chronic pain from 2 types of musculoskeletal illnesses , fibromyalgia syndrome ( FMS ) and osteoarthritis ( OA ) . In Study 1 , there were 101 female participants 50 to 78 years old : 50 had FMS , 29 had OA knee pain and were scheduled for knee surgery , and 22 had OA but were not planning surgery . Cross-sectional analyses showed that the three groups were comparable on demographic variables , personality attributes , negative affect , active coping , and perceived social support . As expected , FMS  and  OA surgery women reported similar levels of bodily pain , and both groups scored higher than OA nonsurgery women . However , women with FMS reported poorer emotional and physical health , lower positive affect , a poorer quality social milieu , and more frequent use of avoidant coping with pain than did both groups of women with OA . Moreover , the perception and use of social support were closely tied to perceived social stress only among the FMS group . In Study 2 , we experimentally manipulated negative mood and stress in 41 women 37 to 74 years old : 20 women had FMS , and 21 women had OA . Participants from each group were r and omly assigned to either a negative mood induction or a neutral mood ( control ) condition , and then all participants discussed a stressful interpersonal event for 30 min . Stress-related increases in pain were exacerbated by negative mood induction among women with FMS but not women with OA , and pain during stress was associated with decreases in positive affect in women with FMS but not women with OA . These findings suggest that among women with chronic pain , those with FMS may be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of social stress . They have fewer positive affective re sources , use less effective pain-coping strategies , and have more constrained social networks than their counterparts with OA , particularly those who experience similar levels of pain . They also seem to experience more prolonged stress-related increases in pain under certain circumstances , all of which may contribute to a lowering of positive affect and increased stress reactivity over time
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 .