Fatigue and mood in chronic fatigue syndrome patients: Results of a momentary assessment protocol examining fatigue and mood levels and diurnal patterns

Examined the overall levels and the diurnal patterns of fatigue, mood, and activities in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients using computer-prompted assessments at random points throughout many days. We hypothesized that levels of fatigue and mood would be different in the groups and that diurnal patterns would also differ by group. Momentary assessment methods avoid many potential biases inherent in retrospective recall techniques. Eight CFS patients and 21 community-dwelling control subjects were randomly prompted between five and six times per day and responded to questions about fatigue, positive affect, negative affect, and the activities they were engaged in at the moment of the prompt. CFS patients participated for 26 days and control subjects participated for 15 days. Compared to the control group, levels of fatigue were higher in the CFS group, yet there were no differences in overall level of positive or negative affect. Strong diurnal patterns of affect were observed for fatigue measures indicating that it was higher in the morning and evening. Diurnal patterns were also observed for mood. Positive affect increased over the day and negative affect decreased. There was very modest support for differential diurnal patterns by group: the effect was only evident for one of the positive affect adjectives. Finally, these results were not diminished when the activities subjects were engaged in at the time of the assessments were controlled.

Duke Scholars

Author Laura S Porter Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Behavioral Medicine & Neur ...