Study: Fatigue driven by inflammation, disease duration and chronic pain in PsA

MADRID — According to findings presented at the EULAR Annual Congress, fatigue in patients with psoriatic arthritis was driven by inflammation, disease duration and chronic pain.

“I can tell you that fatigue is the second most important symptom for these people and it has a huge impact on the quality of life,” Tanja Schjødt Jørgensen, MSc, PhD, from the University of Bispebjerg, said in her presentation. “So fatigue being very important to these patients, [is] fatigue [that] should be very important to you too.”

Researchers assessed 1,062 patients diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis between 2013 and 2014. They found patients with moderate to severe fatigue — defined as a VAS score of at least 7 — had higher scores for pain, DAS28, health assessment questionnaire and patient global assessment scores and had more tender and swollen joints.

In the principal component analysis, researchers separated clinical co-variables into three components, which explained 63% of fatigue. The first component, which contributed 31% of fatigue, mainly consisted of inflammatory factors. However, the second component primarily consisted of contributions from age and disease duration, which explained 17% of experienced fatigue. The third component consisted of patient pain, tender joint count, increasing age and concomitant low C-reactive protein, which contributed 15%.

“The remaining 37% was considered residuals,” the researchers wrote. — by Will Offit

Reference:

Skougaard M, et al. Abstract #OP0112. Presented at: EULAR Annual Congress; June 14-17, 2017; Madrid.

Disclosure: Jorgensen reports she was on the speakers bureau for AbbVie, Roche, UCB, Novartis and Biogen.