J Korean Acad Fam Med.
1997 Oct;18(10):1017-1026.
Neurotic Symptoms of Patients with Fatigue
Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Fatigue is one of the most common complaints of primary care practices and consists of symptoms of physical diseases and neurotic symptoms. This study was conducted to find that fatigue related to neurotic symptoms is as important as fatigue related to symptoms of the physical diseases itself. In addition to it, this study is to clarify and to understand the details of the neurotic symptoms.
METHODS
In the course of six months(from April to september, 1996.), the 73 subjects were selected among the people that visited the outpatient department of family medicine with symptom of fatigue. The control group was selected from the healthy population which matched nearly the same number as the fatigue group. As tools of measurement, we used SCL-MPD consisted of 67 items. We performed statistical analysis among the data by means of SPSS/PC+. We analysed statistical dat,a for significance using non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test.
RESULTS
There was no difference between the prevalence of men and women in the fatigue group. As the level of education decreased and employment increased, the proportion of patients that complained of fatigue increased. The fatigue group scored significantly higher than the control group in all questionnaire of SCL-MPD. The results of the somatization scale and phobic-anxiety were significant,ly high(p<0.01) and the rest of the scales were even more significantly high(p<0.001). Women scored higher in all aspects of SCL MPD than men.
CONCLUSIONS
The author emphasize the importance of neurotic symptoms related to fatigue and biopsychosocial approach towards the patient. Considering the increase in medical cost and the decrease in productivity due to fatigue, there needs to be a thorough study on fatigue.
