Table 2 Summary of the characteristics that define FM fatigue
From: Fatigue in fibromyalgia: a conceptual model informed by patient interviews
FM-fatigue characteristics | US (n = 20) | France (n = 10) | Germany (n = 10) | Total (n = 40) | Example Quote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Overwhelming feeling of tiredness | 10 | 4 | 3 | 17 | "Feeling of just being, just overwhelmed by tired - just being tired and sleepy and fatigued" - Female, aged 61, US "you're that tired, it's this big oppressive - it's like a blanket and it wraps you up...it's overwhelming" - Female, aged 33, US |
Not relieved by resting or sleeping | 10 | 1 | 4 | 15 | "I could sleep 20 hours and still be tired. That is terrible." - Female, aged 58, Germany "But when you sleep, it doesn't resolve it. You still wake up tired. " - Female, aged 50, US |
Not proportional to effort exerted | 17 | 4 | 4 | 25 | "...whereas in this case you've done nothing, you shouldn't feel tired, but you do, you're weary, completely lethargic." - Female, aged 39, France "In general, the fatigue, for me, it strikes quite bad, because I normally like an active person. And now to do the simplest little thing, I can be where I'm just totally worn out. Like I've been doing something all day long very strenuous." - Female, aged 49, US |
Feeling of weakness or heaviness | 10 | 4 | 6 | 20 | "your whole body feels really heavy, like I was saying about the cement suit thing. I just feel like there's a real heaviness to it." -Female, aged 41, US "I don't shop, my friends do it for me, it is enough to go with them and say what I want; that is exhausting enough. Exhaustion means that my body feels lifeless and weak." - Female, aged 50, Germany |
Difficult to get motivated | 12 | 5 | 5 | 20 | "...you just don't have the energy and the motivation to get out of the bed and do anything" - Male, aged 50, US "Yes, well, the lack of enthusiasm which I have, that I have to overcome to motivate myself into doing something." - Female, aged 58, Germany |
Difficulty doing the things they want to do | 12 | 3 | 9 | 24 | "...so you are too tired to go shopping, for example" - Male, aged 49, Germany |
Having to do things more slowly | 8 | 4 | 3 | 15 | "Because I'm sluggish no matter what I'm doing, that's it! I need more time doing things now that took me 5 minutes before!" - Female patient, aged 30, France |
Difficult to concentrate, think or remember things | 12 | 7 | 8 | 27 | "Well I think that the fatigue causes - I think it causes a lot of things to be missing in a person's concentration." - Female, aged 56, US "...you can't think and you can't hear, and everything's grey." - Female, aged 33, US |