RESEARCH ARTICLE


Subgrouping in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Based on Actigraphy and Illness Severity



Mariya Zaturenskaya1, Leonard A. Jason*, 2, Susan Torres-Harding3, Warren W. Tryon4
1 University of Cincinnati, USA
2 DePaul University, Center for Community Research, DePaul University, 990 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago, IL 60614, USA
3 Roosevelt University, USA
4 Fordham University, USA


© 2008 A. Jason et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Center for Community Research, DePaul University, 990 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago, IL 60614, USA; E-mail: LJASON@depaul.edu


Abstract

Participants with chronic fatigue syndrome were categorized into subtypes based on actigraphy and illness selfreport symptom severity data. Each method identified two groups of patients, one with severe and one with less severe manifestations of the illness. For both subtypes, those in the more severe category had more physical functioning problems than those in the less severe categories. However, for the illness self-report symptom group, those in the more severe category had significantly more impairment in sleep, anxiety, depression, and pain, and more concurrent psychiatric status and Fibromyalgia than those in the less severe category. In contrast, those in the more severe actigraphy subtype group in comparison to the less severe group had more impairment in quality of life and cortisol readings. These findings suggest that CFS subtypes based on symptom severity and amount of activity identify different groups of patients with varying types of impairments.

Keywords: Chronic fatigue syndrome, subtyping, actigraphy, illness severity.