Fatigue, Depression, and Cortical Excitability in Systemic Lupus

Fatigue, is a multidimensional phenomenon that affects individuals physically, emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally.It affects 80-90% of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. It is likely multifactorial and may be caused by disordered sleep, anxiety and depression, pain, polypharmacy, comorbidities, and possibly disease activity. Additionally, fatigue is the most prevalent symptom in systemic lupus erythematosus, being present in up to 90% of patients. Moreover, fatigue has a major impact on the Health-Related Quality Of Life of Systemic lupus erythematosus patients through its impact on family life, work, social life, emotional wellbeing, and cognition. Therefore, every effort should be made to relieve fatigue in this population. Recommendations for the management of fatigue usually combine pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions; however, no specific drugs have proven useful for treating fatigue in Systemic lupus erythematosus.