CORRELATES OF SOMATIC CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS IN PRIMARY-CARE PATIENTS WITH FATIGUE

Researchers in the field of chronic fatigue in tertiary care found tha t patients' somatic (e.g. viral) explanations for their condition may lead to chronicity of symptoms. We studied the influence of a somatic attributional bias on outcome and reported symptoms in primary care pa tients with fatigue. We compared fatigue scores on a specific scale, a nd number of presented symptoms, in two groups of primary care patient s with 'functional' fatigue: 75 with a high score on the somatic subsc ale of the Fatigue Attribution Scale (S-FAS), and 95 with a low score on the S-FAS. At the index visit, patients with low and high scores on the S-FAS were not different for age, sex, fatigue scores, and levels of depressive symptoms. Patients with high scores on the S-FAS presen ted significantly more somatic and psychological symptoms - a total of 36 symptoms for 24 patients (25.3%) in the low-score group, and a tot al of 52 symptoms for 31 patients (41.3%) in the high-score group. For ty-two days later, at the follow-up visit, the fatigue scores were sim ilar in both groups. In primary care patients with fatigue not due to somatic illnesss or major depression, the tendency to attribute fatigu e to somatic causes is not associated with a worse outcome, but with a higher number of reported symptoms.