Differences in Physical and Psychosocial Characteristics Between CFS and Fatigued Non-CFS Patients

[voner]

Differences in Physical and Psychosocial Characteristics Between CFS and Fatigued Non-CFS Patients, a Case-Control Study.
De Gucht V1, Garcia FK2, den Engelsman M2, Maes S2.

Abstract
PURPOSE:
The main research question is: "Do CFS patients differ from fatigued non-CFS patients with respect to physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional determinants?" In addition, group differences in relevant outcomes were explored.

METHOD:
Patients who met the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) criteria for CFS were categorized as CFS; these patients were mainly recruited via a large Dutch patient organization. Primary care patients who were fatigued for at least 1 month and up to 2 years but did not meet the CDC criteria were classified as fatigued non-CFS patients. Both groups were matched by age and gender (N = 192 for each group).

RESULTS:
CFS patients attributed their fatigue more frequently to external causes, reported a worse physical functioning, more medical visits, and a lower employment rate. The results of a multiple logistic regression analysis showed that patients who believe that their fatigue is associated with more severe consequences, that their fatigue will last longer and is responsible for more additional symptoms are more likely to be classified as CFS, while patients who are more physically active and have higher levels of "all or nothing behavior" are less likely to be classified as having CFS.

CONCLUSION:
A longitudinal study should explore the predictive value of the above factors for the transition from medically unexplained fatigue to CFS in order to develop targeted interventions for primary care patients with short-term fatigue complaints.

KEYWORDS:
Behavioral regulation pattern; Chronic fatigue syndrome; Fatigue; Illness representations; Matched case-control; Psychosocial characteristics

.......published in the International Journal of Behavioural Medicine, Feb 19, 2016......

I tried to find the full paper, but I could not find it. perhaps someone else can...??

 

[Bob]

Full paper.

Online:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12529-016-9544-0

PDF:
http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12529-016-9544-0.pdf

 

[Anika]

Full paper.

Online:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12529-016-9544-0

PDF:
http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12529-016-9544-0.pdf

Whew. Where does one begin with this?

 

[user9876]

Its poor

They read in causality to correlation. Basically they seem to have prejudged certain directional relationships that they wish to get and then allocated some questionnaires as 'determinants' and some as 'outcomes' and decided that determinants cause outcomes - although no justification is given for the choices.

On a minor points. They diagnose through questionnaires. They seem to have two sources of patients one from a patient group and one from a primary care source but as far as I could see they don't describe the primary care source.

 

[Keela Too]

I can't help but feel there is a sort of paper generating scheme going on here. Produce loads of papers that can be cited, and keep citing them around and around. None show anything really new about ME but build into the myth that there is nothing much more than a vague set of symptoms that the patients misconstrue to claim they are ill. I can't bear to open this. But suspect from above that that is what it is about. Meh..

 

[Effi]

some background info on the names on this paper:

all from Leiden University in The Netherlands - faculty of Health, Medical and Neuropsychology.

* Veronique de Gucht, assistant professor

My current area of research is situated within the domain of (clinical) health psychology, with special emphasis on (1) psychosocial determinants and psychological consequences of chronic disease, (2) the development and evaluation of interventions for patients suffering from chronic diseases (e.g. Rheumatoid Arthritis, Coronary Heart Disease) and (3) medically unexplained physical symptoms and syndromes, including observational studies and intervention studies (e.g. chronic pain, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome).

* Stan Maes is this guy

The two others don't seem to work there anymore. From what I'm gathering online they had some sort of a temporary freelance research position?

I agree with @Keela Too : paper generating scheme.

 

[soti]

Wow, "the transition from medically unexplained fatigue to CFS". What an assumption!

 

[JohnCB]

The two others don't seem to work there anymore. From what I'm gathering online they had some sort of a temporary freelance research position?

This is just a guess but could these two be students? There is a lot of stuff churned out by psychology departments where students do questionnaire based research of dubious quality. Some of it gets rewritten as journal articles.

 

[Effi]

This is just a guess but could these two be students? There is a lot of stuff churned out by psychology departments where students do questionnaire based research of dubious quality. Some of it gets rewritten as journal articles.

That though crossed my mind too, but I didn't know students' work gets published sometimes. It sure looks like a student level paper, so maybe you're right!

 

[valentinelynx]

Wow, "the transition from medically unexplained fatigue to CFS". What an assumption!

Agree. That appears to be the whole assumption behind this study - that "medically unexplained fatigue" somehow is a precursor for the disease CFS. The statement that "patients who believe that their fatigue is associated with more severe consequences, that their fatigue will last longer and is responsible for more additional symptoms are more likely to be classified as CFS" also indicates that the researchers think that "fatigue" is the disease, not another symptom

This so-called research is *&^%.

 

[alex3619]

Babble in, babble out. Pure BIBO to me.

 

[Justin30]

Does anyone one want to list what causes fatigue:

- Stress
- obesity
- not enough sleep
- poor diet

And the list goes on and on and on and on now when you have ME on the other hand you have something a bit different....

You literally cant move, even when you want to almost like paralysis, your brain does not function or have the ability to cognitively process information like brain death, you are hollow but alive!

 

[Woolie]

Wow, "the transition from medically unexplained fatigue to CFS". What an assumption!

Yea, like there must be some sort of "transition". It started pretty abruptly for many of us. The "transition" was entirely artificial: happened when we reached the six month mark and therefore qualified for the formal diagnosis.