Assessment of Value of Fatigue Severity and Symptoms in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Fibromyalgia

Background and Objective: Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) remains a challenge for health care professionals because of its complex pathogenesis. Scales and questionnaires have been developed in order to assess the severity of syndrome. Fibromyalgia share similar clinical features with CFS/ME however have its own diagnostic criteria. Our study was performed to analyze impact of value of fatigue severity in patients with CFS/ME and fibromyalgia (FM).
Materials and Methods: One hundred and three CFS/ME patients and 21 fibromyalgia patients were included in study. CFS/ME patients were diagnosed using the diagnostic criteria of Fukuda et al. 1994. The diagnosis of fibromyalgia was established using the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 1990 diagnostic criteria. Fatigue Severity scale (FSS) and Fibro Fatigue scale (FFS) were used to assess the severity of fatigue. Factor analysis was performed in order to detect most common combinations of clinical signs in patients with CFS/ME. The data were calculated using SPSS version 16.0.
Results: The most common clinical feature other than fatigue was un-refreshing sleep established in 71(68.9%) patients. The mean score of FSS within CFS/ME patients was 6.65±0.256. The highest mean scores–6.94±0.243 were observed within statements – “Exercise brings on my fatigue”, “Fatigue is among my three most disabling symptoms”. The total score of FSS within CFS/ME patients was 59.94±2.045 and 53.62±8.880 in FM patients, (p=0.008). Fatigue was the most severe indicator according to FFS in CFS/ME patients with means score 5.76±0.664.
Conclusion: Most part of the CFS/ME patients suffered from un-refreshing sleep. CFS/ME patients had higher rates according to FSS than FM patients, which shows that fatigue in patients with CFS/ME is more intense, affecting their daily activities.