The Impact of Chronic Fatigue on Psychopathology in Outpatient Physiotherapy Patients 2025 Aslanidis and Kotsiou

[Andy]

ABSTRACT

Introduction
Chronic fatigue is a debilitating condition marked by physical and mental exhaustion, frequently co-occurring with psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety.

Methods
In a cross-sectional study, 172 consecutive patients from a busy physiotherapy clinic were assessed using the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS) for physical and mental fatigue and the SCL-90 for various psychological symptoms, with correlation analyses exploring relationships between fatigue severity, psychological distress and demographic factors.

Results
Most participants reported clinically significant fatigue, with 90.69% experiencing physical fatigue and 76.77% experiencing mental fatigue. Paranoid ideation (61.05%) and obsessive-compulsiveness (59.88%) were common. Strong correlations were found between overall fatigue and psychological distress (r = 0.675, p < 0.001), especially between mental fatigue and depression (r = 0.699, p < 0.001).

Conclusion
Overall, the findings underscore the need for integrated multidisciplinary interventions to address both chronic fatigue and its related psychiatric symptoms.

Open access

 

[Andy]

"Participants were recruited from individuals seeking physiotherapy treatment at the clinic, due to musculoskeletal pain, and post-operative rehabilitation, specifically targeting those who reported experiencing persistent fatigue. Participants were selected based on their willingness to take part in the study, and recruitment occurred during regular physiotherapy appointments at the clinic. After providing information about the study, all participants gave informed consent before data collection.

Efforts were also made to reduce selection bias by recruiting participants from a diverse population attending a private physiotherapy clinic. This helped ensure that the sample was representative of individuals experiencing chronic fatigue within the clinic setting. Exclusion criteria included individuals with chronic neurological diseases. Follow-up was not necessary for this study since it is a cross-sectional design, with data collection occurring at a single point in time."

 

[Andy]

Authors seemingly muddle chronic fatigue and chronic fatigue syndrome together as they wish, they may well have included some ME/CFS patients in their cohort but if they did it was by accident.

 

[Utsikt]

Seems like they also believe that questionnaires are good for assessing psychological aspects of people that are physically ill. Yet another garbage study based on garbage data.

 

[Trish]

It's also ridiculous for physiotherapists to be using questionnaires outside their professional field. The conclusion that so many had OCD and paranoid ideation on the basis of questionnaires analysed by a physiotherapist is ridiculous. Such conditions should surely be diagosed only after consultation by someone with expertise in these conditions.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

Such conditions should surely be diagosed only after consultation by someone with expertise in these conditions.

I can see you are getting paranoid @Trish. Take a rest!