
Research view
Title: | Major depression and anxiety: another presentation (correlation with fatigue) |
Author: | Safeya Effat, Alaa Soliman, Menan A. Rabie, Eman Shorab and Amira Salem |
Abstract: |
Background
Patients suffering from major depressive disorder and different types of anxiety
disorders sometimes present to nonpsychiatrists complaining of atypical
presentations, for example, fatigue, which leads us to the question: does chronic
fatigue represent another clinical presentation for depression and anxiety?
Design and methods
This study was a cross-sectional comparative study that included 100 adults presenting
with fatigue without an evident medical cause and 50 controls presenting with fatigue
associated with anemia to a general internal medicine outpatient clinic. All patients
underwent a detailed clinical medical evaluation and were assessed by the
Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI), the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview
(MINI), the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale.
Results
The most common primary psychiatric diagnoses of the ‘nonorganic fatigue’ group
were depressive disorders (43%), somatization/hypochondriasis (31%), and anxiety
disorders (27%). Physical fatigue, reduced activity, and mental fatigue were higher
among the patients having organic fatigue than in those having nonorganic fatigue. The
severity of depressive disorders was significantly correlated to reduced motivation and
mental fatigue.
Conclusion
Fatigue is a presentation not uncommonly pointing to an underlying psychiatric
condition. Sometimes psychiatric complaints cannot be expressed verbally by the
patient although he is suffering from different psychiatric symptoms, usually those of
depressive disorders.
Keywords:
anxiety, depression, Egypt, fatigue, major depressive disorder
|
Journal: | Egyptian Journal of Psychiatry 2013, 34:164–171 |
Text: | |
Download Link |