Marie Thomas

The development of subjective and objective tools to measure acute and chronic fatigue

Abstract

Although we all experience fatigue, how it is perceived differs from person to person. It is this subjectivity that makes it difficult to measure or quantify. What we do know is that there are two components of fatigue – mental and physical. Probably, the most universally recognised cause of both mental and physical fatigue is lack of sleep. Anecdotally, people talk about tiredness or lethargy, not being able to concentrate, a slowing of physical responses, problems remembering things, not being able to pay attention for extended periods and low mood. We know the causes of acute fatigue and how sleep, rest and stimulants such as caffeine could mitigate the cognitive deficits associated with it. However, what happens when someone has ongoing fatigue where the cause is unknown (aetiology) and which is not resolved by sleep or rest? In this talk, I shall be referring mainly to my research in this field.