Published 27 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4393
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4393

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Fewer than half of patients with fatigue get explanation for their symptoms within a year, study shows

David Spurgeon

1 Quebec

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Of 571 patients who presented with fatigue, in a primary care study in 147 general practices throughout the Netherlands, at least half in a one year follow-up did not receive a diagnosis that could possibly explain their complaint, and only a minority were diagnosed as having serious pathology (CMAJ 2009 Oct 26, doi:10.1503/cmaj.090647).

Nevertheless, the authors concluded that because fatigue is seen in 5% to 10% of patients and a wide range of conditions and symptoms might explain or co-occur with it, fatigue remains a common problem that deserves attention.

In their prospective observational cohort study, they included adult patients who presented with a new episode of fatigue between June 2004 and January 2006. They extracted data on diagnoses during the follow-up period from the patients’ medical records as well as data on pre-existing chronic diseases.

Of the 571 patients from whom diagnostic data were available, 268 . . . [Full text of this article]


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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Suggestions for diagnosis of patients presenting with fatigue
Nancy Blake
bmj.com, 29 Oct 2009 [Full text]
Re: A comment from a psychiatrist on Nancy Blake`s letter on patients presenting with fatigue in primary care.
Karl C. Mayer
bmj.com, 1 Nov 2009 [Full text]
Beware of statistics
Ellen Goudsmit
bmj.com, 5 Nov 2009 [Full text]
Chronic fatigue option
Edmond V O`Flaherty
bmj.com, 9 Nov 2009 [Full text]
Re: Suggestions for diagnosis of patients presenting with fatigue
Les O. Simpson
bmj.com, 9 Nov 2009 [Full text]
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