Complaints of fatigue: Related to too much as well as too little external stimulation?

Fatigue has been acknowledged as a widespread problem associated with a var iety of factors, In the present paper we attempt to explain fatigue complai nts on the basis of Pennebaker's (1982) "competition of cues" notion. Compe tition of cues suggests that both extremely low and extremely high levels o f external stimulation in daily life may be related to relatively higher fr equencies of complaint. The dimensional structure of external stimulation i s first explored and then the shape of the relation between external stimul ation (ie., stimuli perceived in daily life) and fatigue was studied in a s ample of 777 general-practice patients. Other risk factors for fatigue and moderating factors are also taken into consideration Results show that quan tity and quality of external stimulation can be distinguished. Both high qu antity (high "experienced overload") and low quality (low "attractiveness o f external stimulation ") are related to higher fatigue frequencies, "Exper ienced overload" is a particularly strong predictor in addition to "perceiv ed health" of fatigue complaints. It is concluded that the "quality-quantit y model for understanding fatigue" proposed here highlights psychological f actors important for any theoretical framework of fatigue.