At the end of the patient interview, patients were asked to nominate their primary caregiver for an interview. The questionnaire asked about the physician's practice, treatment decisions, and the prevalence and impact of fatigue among their patients. A total of 205 completed questionnaires were returned, for an overall response rate of 34 percent. Therefore, a total of 197 physicians are included in the analysis. The pervasiveness of fatigue and its impact on the lives of patients and caregivers is great.
Fatigue can also have an overall effect on the patient's ability to cope with cancer.
Patients and physicians also differ on their perceptions of the cause of fatigue. In addition, the lack of physician-patient discussions about fatigue may be due to the dearth of therapeutic interventions to treat fatigue. Although physicians, patients and caregivers agree that fatigue exists, this survey suggests they disagree on how big a problem it is. This discrepancy points to an important communications gap between cancer patients and their primary physicians. Physicians are more likely to treat problems patients tell them about.