Fatigue in chronic disease

Fatigue is an extremely common complaint among patients with chronic diseas e. However, because of the subjective nature of fatigue, and the lack of ef fective therapeutics with which to treat fatigue, this symptom is often ign ored by clinicians, who instead focus on hard, objective disease end-points . Recently, the symptom of fatigue has received greater attention as part o f overall health-related quality of life assessments in patients with chron ic disease. Furthermore, new methods are being developed to help quantify f atigue, and are being utilized more frequently in the clinical setting. Mor eover, studies in patients and using animal models of disease have provided some insight into changes within the brain which appear to be linked to th e genesis of central fatigue. This review focuses on fatigue in chronic dis ease and outlines possible mechanisms which may give rise to central fatigu e in chronic disease. Moreover, methods for measuring fatigue and an approa ch to the fatigued patient are discussed. Hopefully, a broader understandin g of th is distressing symptom will lead to the development of specific the rapies for treating fatigue in these patients.