TY - JOUR T1 - Furthering Our Understanding of Fatigue in Rheumatoid Arthritis JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 1775 LP - 1777 DO - 10.3899/jrheum.120724 VL - 39 IS - 9 AU - SARAH HEWLETT AU - ERNEST CHOY AU - JOHN KIRWAN Y1 - 2012/09/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/39/9/1775.abstract N2 - Fatigue is a common problem in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with 42%–69% reporting severe fatigue1,2,3. RA fatigue can have as much impact as and be as difficult to cope with as pain2. Indeed, some studies report fatigue severity levels in RA similar to those seen in chronic fatigue syndrome, and higher than in cancer3.Fatigue has risen higher on the research agenda in the past 6 to 8 years primarily in response to patient involvement in outcome measurement through collaboration in the OMERACT conferences (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology)4, which led to international consensus that fatigue must be measured alongside the core set of domains for RA5. In addition, further research from multiple sources has demonstrated the high prioritization of fatigue by patients in patient-generated core sets such as the RA Patient Priorities for Pharmacological Intervention6 and the RA Impact of Disease Scale7. While there is increasing information about the efficacy of pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions for RA fatigue8,9, interventions can best be designed and tested if the causal pathway is understood.Information on the causal pathway of RA fatigue to date has been largely based on cross-sectional studies of single variables. These studies show conflicting results, with (for example) … Address correspondence to Dr. S. Hewlett, Arthritis Research UK, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Bristol BS2 8HW, UK., E-mail: Sarah.Hewlett{at}uwe.ac.uk ER -