Disentangling Fatigue from Anhedonia: a systematic review

Authors

• SC Kumar
• RR Billones
• LN Saligan

Abstract

Fatigue and anhedonia are commonly reported clinical symptoms associated with chronic illnesses. Fatigue is a multidimensional construct that is defined as a distressing, persistent, subjective sense of physical, cognitive, or emotional tiredness that interferes with usual functioning. Anhedonia is a component of depressive disorders and is defined by the reduced ability to experience pleasure. Both symptoms greatly affect the quality of life for long-term patients. Although fatigue is common to patients with anhedonia, fatigue has been reported to persist in some patients even after their depression are clinically treated. This systematic review of existing literature aims to differentiate fatigue from anhedonia. An initial search of PubMed using fatigue and anhedonia as Medical subject headings (MeSH) yielded 117 articles. Additional search terms were included such as tiredness and lassitude which yielded a total of 5,254 articles. Initial filtering criteria removed articles that were not published in English, published outside 2008 to 2018, and studies that did not use human research participants. So, 1,171 articles remain for further evaluation. Further filters will be applied to remove duplicate articles, reviews, editorials, letters, commentaries, dissertations, and meeting abstracts. A complete review of the full text of the remaining articles will be conducted. We hypothesize that specific domains of fatigue, especially affective fatigue manifest similar characteristics as anhedonia. Information generated from this review will be clinically relevant to optimize management of fatigue related to anhedonia from other fatigue sub-types.

Scientific Focus Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences

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