Fatigue and pain in long-term conditions across the life span

Abstract

Aims: The aim of this symposium is to illustrate some of the psychological processes that are related to symptom experience, focusing particularly on fatigue and pain, across a range of long term conditions (diabetes, multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue syndrome), and in participants at different stages of the life span. Delegates attending the symposium will learn about the cognitions, behaviours and emotional factors that are thought to maintain symptoms of pain and fatigue across conditions, the process of developing a treatment model, and factors which are important in determining the effects of treatment. Rationale: This symposium is distinctive in that it demonstrates how symptoms across a range of conditions can be understood in terms of common processes, which can in turn inform treatment models. Summary: The symposium starts with a report of a prospective study (Chalder) which shows how cognitive and behavioural factors maintain fatigue in adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome. The importance of fatigue related cognitions in the perpetuation of severe fatigue in diabetes is picked up in paper 2 (Menting), which also demonstrates the interrelations between pain and fatigue in this condition. Paper 3 (Moss-Morris) reports on the development of a model explaining pain in multiple sclerosis on the basis of cognitive, behavioural and emotional factors, and shows how this model has informed a self-help intervention. Paper 4 (Knoop) focuses on how interpersonal factors, particularly solicitous responding on the part of a significant other, may predict symptomatic response to treatment for fatigue in chronic fatigue syndrome. Finally, paper 5 (Wearden) reports on associations between sleep problems and fatigue in chronic fatigue syndrome, and shows how improvements in sleep partially mediate the effect of treatment on fatigue.