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“I’m So Tired”: Fatigue as a Persistent Physical Symptom among Working People Experiencing Exhaustion Disorder

Fatigue is widespread in the population, particularly among working people. Exhaustion disorder (ED), a clinical manifestation of burnout, is common, but, after treatment, about one-third still experience fatigue and other physical symptoms. We propose that in some instances, fatigue as a persistent...

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Autores principales: Broddadóttir, Elín, Flóvenz, Sigrún Ólafsdóttir, Gylfason, Haukur Freyr, Þormar, Þórey, Einarsson, Hjalti, Salkovskis, Paul, Sigurðsson, Jón Friðrik
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8392333/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34444405
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168657
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author Broddadóttir, Elín
Flóvenz, Sigrún Ólafsdóttir
Gylfason, Haukur Freyr
Þormar, Þórey
Einarsson, Hjalti
Salkovskis, Paul
Sigurðsson, Jón Friðrik
author_facet Broddadóttir, Elín
Flóvenz, Sigrún Ólafsdóttir
Gylfason, Haukur Freyr
Þormar, Þórey
Einarsson, Hjalti
Salkovskis, Paul
Sigurðsson, Jón Friðrik
author_sort Broddadóttir, Elín
collection PubMed
description Fatigue is widespread in the population, particularly among working people. Exhaustion disorder (ED), a clinical manifestation of burnout, is common, but, after treatment, about one-third still experience fatigue and other physical symptoms. We propose that in some instances, fatigue as a persistent physical symptom (PPS) might be a more appropriate formulation of ED patients’ fatigue problems, and we suggest that ED patients who meet fatigue PPS criteria will differ from other ED patients in terms of psychological distress, non-fatigue PPSs and functional impairment. Questionnaires were sent to 10,956 members of a trade union of which 2479 (22.6%) responded. Of 1090 participants who met criteria for ED, 106 (9.7%) met criteria for fatigue as a PPS. Participants who met fatigue PPS criteria scored on average higher on measures of depression, anxiety and functional impairment and were more likely to have clinically significant scores. Moreover, they had 27 times higher odds of meeting other PPS subtypes and reported more non-fatigue PPS subtypes, suggesting a more complex health problem. Specific evidence-based interventions are available for both ED and PPSs, and therefore, it is crucial to accurately formulate the fatigue problem reported by patients to provide appropriate treatment.
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spelling pubmed-83923332021-08-28 “I’m So Tired”: Fatigue as a Persistent Physical Symptom among Working People Experiencing Exhaustion Disorder Broddadóttir, Elín Flóvenz, Sigrún Ólafsdóttir Gylfason, Haukur Freyr Þormar, Þórey Einarsson, Hjalti Salkovskis, Paul Sigurðsson, Jón Friðrik Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Fatigue is widespread in the population, particularly among working people. Exhaustion disorder (ED), a clinical manifestation of burnout, is common, but, after treatment, about one-third still experience fatigue and other physical symptoms. We propose that in some instances, fatigue as a persistent physical symptom (PPS) might be a more appropriate formulation of ED patients’ fatigue problems, and we suggest that ED patients who meet fatigue PPS criteria will differ from other ED patients in terms of psychological distress, non-fatigue PPSs and functional impairment. Questionnaires were sent to 10,956 members of a trade union of which 2479 (22.6%) responded. Of 1090 participants who met criteria for ED, 106 (9.7%) met criteria for fatigue as a PPS. Participants who met fatigue PPS criteria scored on average higher on measures of depression, anxiety and functional impairment and were more likely to have clinically significant scores. Moreover, they had 27 times higher odds of meeting other PPS subtypes and reported more non-fatigue PPS subtypes, suggesting a more complex health problem. Specific evidence-based interventions are available for both ED and PPSs, and therefore, it is crucial to accurately formulate the fatigue problem reported by patients to provide appropriate treatment. MDPI 2021-08-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8392333/ /pubmed/34444405 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168657 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Broddadóttir, Elín
Flóvenz, Sigrún Ólafsdóttir
Gylfason, Haukur Freyr
Þormar, Þórey
Einarsson, Hjalti
Salkovskis, Paul
Sigurðsson, Jón Friðrik
“I’m So Tired”: Fatigue as a Persistent Physical Symptom among Working People Experiencing Exhaustion Disorder
title “I’m So Tired”: Fatigue as a Persistent Physical Symptom among Working People Experiencing Exhaustion Disorder
title_full “I’m So Tired”: Fatigue as a Persistent Physical Symptom among Working People Experiencing Exhaustion Disorder
title_fullStr “I’m So Tired”: Fatigue as a Persistent Physical Symptom among Working People Experiencing Exhaustion Disorder
title_full_unstemmed “I’m So Tired”: Fatigue as a Persistent Physical Symptom among Working People Experiencing Exhaustion Disorder
title_short “I’m So Tired”: Fatigue as a Persistent Physical Symptom among Working People Experiencing Exhaustion Disorder
title_sort “i’m so tired”: fatigue as a persistent physical symptom among working people experiencing exhaustion disorder
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8392333/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34444405
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168657
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