The assessment of fatigue in primary Sjögren's syndrome.

OBJECTIVE

Disabling fatigue is a prominent feature of primary Sjögren's syndrome (PSS). We evaluated a number of questionnaires for their ability to discriminate fatigue in PSS from that in other rheumatic disorders and healthy controls.

METHODS

33 female caucasian patients with PSS, 45 with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 16 with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 30 controls completed self-administered questionnaires including; Visual Analogue Scales (VAS), the Chalder Fatigue Scale (CFS), the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) and the Medical Outcomes Short Form 36 Questionnaire (SF-36).

RESULTS

All patient groups scored significantly worse than controls on the 'Energy' dimension of the NHP, the fatigue VAS and the 'Vitality' domain of the SF-36. No significant differences were observed between PSS patients and controls using the CFS.

CONCLUSIONS

The NHP. VAS and SF-36 are useful in identifying fatigue in these rheumatic disorders. Further work is required to identify the characteristic features of fatigue in these conditions.