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 .
Assessing fibromyalgia-related fatigue: content validity and psychometric performance of the Fatigue Visual Analog Scale in adult patients with fibromyalgia.
OBJECTIVES To document 1 ) the content validity and 2 ) measure improvements in fatigue , using the  Fatigue Visual Analogue Scale ( VAS ) assessment tool in patients with fibromyalgia . METHODS The relevance and comprehensiveness of the Fatigue VAS were tested through a qualitative analysis of 20 subjects ' verbatim transcripts from semi-structured qualitative interviews . Data from two r and omised , controller trials in fibromyalgia ( n=1121 ) were used to conduct correlation analyses with the  Fatigue and Tiredness  items from the Fibromyalgia Impact Question naire ( FIQ ) and the Short Form-36 Vitality scale . Known-groups and cross classification analyses were conducted to demonstrate the ability to measure improvement in fatigue using the Fatigue VAS . RESULTS All subjects spontaneously reported that fatigue was an important symptom to capture in fibromyalgia . The Fatigue VAS was well understood by most subjects ( n=18/20 ) . High correlations ( Pearson r>0.75 ) and good agreement ( k>0.66 ) were found between the Fatigue VAS and the FIQ tiredness items no. 16 and 17 and SF-36 ™ Vitality scale . In both clinical trials there was a substantial separation of approximately 20 points on the mean change in the Fatigue VAS score between responders ( > 30 % improvement in pain VAS ) and non-responders . CONCLUSIONS Previous studies have confirmed that fatigue is a major component of the fibromyalgia experience . This current study reports that fibromyalgia patients spontaneously rated fatigue as a highly significant feature of their illness , and supports the use of the Fatigue VAS as a valid question naire in fibromyalgia clinical trials
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 .