Fatigue and the Effort Syndrome

Abstract

Fatigue is one of the commonest complaints a physician encounters, so common indeed that it gives little guidance for the diagnostic approach. Besides, fatigue is a normal phenomenon; so why and when does it become a symptom, in other words an indicator of illness ? Fatigue is a conspicuous symptom in effort syndrome cases, and the close association between effort, or rather incapacity for effort, and fatigue suggested an approach to the effort syndrome problem from the angle of fatigue.Fatigue, as used in psychomatic medicine, has both a subjective and an objective meaning. According to the prevalent interest in the somatic side the objective aspect has been studied more than the subjective in medicine; even the psychologist tends to interest himself in the objective results of fatigue rather than in the psychological phenomenon as such.