Thomas, M, Smith, A and Christopher, G (2011) Measuring recovery in chronic fatigue syndrome patients and assessing the impact of associated risk factors on positive outcome. In: British Psychological Society Annual Conference, 4 - 6 May 2011, Glasgow, UK.
Abstract
The current study describes a large cohort of untreated Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patients at initial assessment and examines changes within the illness over three years. Furthermore, a ‘current state of health’ scale, developed in previous studies, was validated for use as a method for accurately measuring recovery. Possible predictors of outcome were then identified by investigating the role of baselines measures in subsequent recovery. Two-hundred-and-twenty-six patients completed questionnaires at initial assessment. The current state of health score was used to measure recovery six, 18 and 36 months later. Associations between baseline measures of fatigue, psychopathology, mood, cognition, stress and current state of health were examined to look at the validity of the state of health measure. Demographic and psychosocial characteristics were investigated as predictors of recovery. Illness characteristics such as illness length, illness onset type and illness beliefs were also investigated as predictors of outcome. There was strong evidence to suggest that the current state of health measure accurately describes the patient’s health at baseline. Data suggests that illness length, symptom severity and health status have an important role in recovery. The current state of health measure was validated as a method of accurately assessing the health status of patients and was used as an indicator of improvement and recovery within this group. Spontaneous recovery in the patient group was associated with several factors measured at initial assessment.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology Q Science > QP Physiology R Medicine > R Medicine (General) R Medicine > RC Internal medicine R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry R Medicine > RM Therapeutics. Pharmacology |
| Divisions: | School of Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 06 Dec 2016 11:43 |
| Last Modified: | 22 Feb 2022 14:57 |
| URI / Page ID: | https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/8598 |
 |
Request a change to this item or report an issue |
 |
Update item (repository staff only) |
Tools
Tools
