ME/CFS Fatigue Types Questionnaire (Jason 2009)

Thanks. I'll give up. It's possible it evolved into something else, but I don't think it's the DePaul Questionnaire, which was created earlier than this one.

It's called the MFQT, and Jason claims it's the most effective questionnaire (he designed it specifically for ME) in a few papers.
 
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It's from this paper: http://www.dsq-sds.org/article/view/938/1113

It might simply be this list of symptoms:

Items
Limbs feel heavy when not moving them
Dead, heavy feeling after exercise
Muscle weakness even after resting
Next day soreness after everyday activities
Mentally tired after the slightest effort
Physically drained after mild activity
Minimum exercise makes you tired
Mind racing when exhausted
Body feels over-stimulated when very tired
Hard to sleep because tense and agitated
Hard to relax or reduce muscle tension
Thinking is hard work and muddy
Misplace items and cannot remember things
When talking, much difficulty with words
Do not have energy to do anything
Lack the energy to talk to anyone
Flu-like symptoms, such as sinus pain, etc.
Muscle ache or pain all over body
Feel like have a high temperature or fever
Headaches and nausea
Overwhelming sleepiness
Dizziness

I can't see how it's scored though.
 
adambeyoncelowe said:
It might simply be this list of symptoms:
Click to expand...

I already got an e-mail back from him.



ME/CFS Fatigue Types Questionnaire



INTRODUCTION:


There are many types of fatigue, but current medical terminology does not differentiate between them. We need to develop new terms that identify the many different types of fatigue, such as:


Energy Fatigue (feeling of heaviness and immobilization without energy to do anything for long periods of time)



Wired Fatigue (feeling of over-stimulation with extremely low energy)



Brain Fog Fatigue (mental impairment with confusion, disorientation, and inability to function in daily activities)



Post-Exertional Fatigue (feeling extreme weakness, discomfort, or sick after minimal amounts of activity)



Flu Fatigue (feeling weak with flu symptoms, such as a high temperature)


We would like to ask you several questions to allow us to better understand these different types of fatigue. But first, we would like to find out some information about you. Please do not write your name on this questionnaire so that your responses remain anonymous. All of your answers will be kept confidential.


For all of the following questions, please provide or circle only one answer.


1. What is your age now?........................................................................................... _______________


2. To which of the following race(s) do you belong?

Black, African-American........................................... 1

White.......................................................................... 2

American Indian or Alaska Native............................. 3

Asian or Pacific Islander............................................ 4

Some other race (Please write-in below)............... 5

___________________________________________


3. Are you of Latino or Hispanic origin?

........... Yes............................................................................. 1

No.............................................................................. 2


4. Are you male or female?

........... Male........................................................................... 1

Female....................................................................... 2


5. What is your current marital status?

Married....................................................................... 1

Separated.................................................................. 2

Widowed.................................................................... 3

Divorced.................................................................... 4

Never married............................................................ 5


6. Do you have any children?

No (Go to Question 7)............................................. 1

Yes (How many children do you have?)............... 2

___________________________________________


7. What grade or degree have you completed in school?

Less than high school................................................ 1

Some high school...................................................... 2

High school degree or GED...................................... 3

Some college (at least one year)

or specialized training................................................ 4

Standard college degree............................................ 5

Graduate professional degree................................... 6


8. What is your current and most recent occupation?

a. Current occupation.......................................................................... _______________


b. Most recent occupation................................................................... _______________



9. Have you been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome by a physician?

........... Yes............................................................................. 1

No.............................................................................. 2

10. Do you currently have chronic fatigue syndrome?

........... Yes............................................................................. 1

No.............................................................................. 2


11. Please indicate whether you are a:

Yes No

a. Student............................. 1 2

b. Homemaker..................... 1 2

c. Retired............................. 1 2

d. Disabled........................... 1 2


12. What is your current work status?

On disability (Go to Question 13)............................ 1

Unemployed (Go to Question 14)........................... 2

Working part-time (Go to Question 14)................... 3

Working full-time (Go to Question 14).................... 4


13. For what condition do you receive disability compensation?

______________________________________________________


14. Which of the following statements best describes your abilities during the last month?

I am not able to work or do anything, and I am bedridden............................... 1

I can walk around the house, but I cannot do light housework........................ 2

I can do light housework, but I cannot work part-time..................................... 3

I can only work part-time or perform some family responsibilities.................. 4

I can work full-time but I have no energy left for anything else....................... 5

I can work full-time and perform family responsibilities but

I have no energy left for anything else............................................................. 6

I can work full-time and perform family responsibilities

without any problems with my energy.............................................................. 7


15. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions about the need to develop better terms on the different types of fatigue?

__________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

TYPES OF FATIGUE QUESTIONNAIRE


In the first column, for the symptoms that you have experienced, please list the date when the symptom first occurred, including the month and year. If you cannot remember the month, please try to write the season (winter, spring, summer, or fall)


In the second column, during the past 6 months, for the symptoms that you have experienced, please indicate how often the symptom occurred using the following choices:

N = Never (Did not occur)

S = Seldom (Once or twice, with each episode lasting no longer than a week)
O = Often (At least two or more times for at least several weeks)
U = Usually (At least 50% of the days of each month)
A = Always (Everyday)


In the third column, if you have experienced the symptom during the past 6 months, for the symptoms that you have experienced, please rate how bad or how much of a problem the symptom has been for you using a 0 to 100 scale, where 0 = no problem, 25 = minimal problem, 50 = a moderate problem, 75 = severe problem, and 100 = the most severe problem possible using the scale below:

No Problem Moderate Problem Most Severe Problem

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100


Start Date
Frequency
Month
or
Season
Year

N=Never
S=Seldom
O=Often
U=Usually
A=Always

Severity 0 to 100


Symptom
Limbs feel heavy when not moving them
Do not have physical energy to do anything
Muscle weakness even after resting
Lack the energy to talk to anyone
Mind racing when exhausted
Body feels over-stimulated when very tired
Hard to sleep due to body and mind feeling tense and agitated
Very hard to relax or reduce muscle tension
Thinking is hard work and muddy
Misplace items and cannot remember things
Mentally tired after the slightest effort
When talking, much difficulty with words
Physically drained or sick after mild activity
Dead, heavy feeling that occurs quickly after starting to exercise
Minimum exercise makes you physically tired
Next day soreness or fatigue after non-strenuous, everyday activities
Flu-like symptoms such as nasal congestion, sinus pain, cough, etc.
Muscle ache or pain all over body.
Feel like have a high temperature or fever
Headaches and nausea
Overwhelming sleepiness
Dizziness


It does not quite translate in a copy/paste so I will try to download the atual chart and upload it here. Also, he sent me 2 other docs and if you want me to e-mail them to you ping me with your e-mail address.
 
This is helpful. To upload, there's a button next to 'post reply' that says 'upload a file'.

I'm curious to try this out and see how accurate it feels. I was trying to find this when writing the response to the NICE scope.
 
From the above study (extra line breaks added):

When people with ME/CFS report symptoms of post-exertional malaise, those symptoms are independent of emotional distress, but when the general population report what they think are post-exertional malaise symptoms, their symptoms of post-exertional malaise are significantly related to emotional distress.

It is possible that because healthy individuals experience a relationship between emotional distress and post-exertional malaise, they might believe that these two domains are connected for themselves and by inference with patients with ME/CFS, when in fact it is not the case. This ultimately might blur the ability of healthy controls to understand the experience of post-extertional malaise for people with ME/CFS.

Of interest, a similar pattern occurred with the MFTQ factor Energy and PFRS Emotional distress, with a significant difference in the correlations between the ME/CFS group and the controls. Again, it is possible that the general population experiences a relationship between emotional distress and energy problems, they might believe that patients with ME/CFS not only have this same connection, but it might also be perceived by some as causal.

In fact, the lack of a relationship between energy problems and emotional distress suggests that these two domains are not related among patients with ME/CFS.

This observation is further supported by the finding that the Total MFTQ score among the control group is more highly related to emotional distress than among patients with ME/CFS.
Click to expand...

Which I find very interesting. This is really useful for diagnosing ME, because it sifts out those who think they have PEM and those who actually do (or it suggests the PEM of healthy controls is emotional, rather than biological).
 
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