Fatigue prevalent in people with psoriatic arthritis, study suggests

Fatigue is the second most pressing issue facing people with psoriatic arthritis after pain, a new study has found.

An international team of researchers carried out a cross-sectional study in 13 countries of 246 psoriatic arthritis patients and the analysis reveals that a number of different factors can be responsible for causing high levels of fatigue among people with psoriatic arthritis.

For the study, which was published in Joint, Bone, Spine, patient-perceived importance of fatigue was assessed via a numeric rating scale between one and ten. For the research, a wide range of contributory factors potentially associated with fatigue were considered, including demographic variables and disease-related characteristics.

Though the magnitude of fatigue was shown to be high as a general rule, a wide variety of influencing factors were associated with a higher likelihood of chronic tiredness.

These included the presence of skin psoriasis symptoms, tender joints and inflammation of the entheses – the sites where tendons or ligaments insert into the bone. Additionally, women and people with low levels of education were also shown to be more likely to experience fatigue.

The report concluded: “Fatigue is a priority for psoriatic arthritis patients. Fatigue levels were high in these patients and fatigue scores of greater than five out of ten were mainly associated with disease-related factors but also patient-related variables, indicating that the etiology of fatigue in psoriatic arthritis is multifactorial.”

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