Coping styles in chronic fatigue syndrome: findings from a population-based study

Specifics of chronic fatigue syndrome coping strategies identified in a French flash survey during the COVID-19 containment

The COVID-19 pandemic has focused health systems on supporting patients affected by this virus. Meanwhile in the community, many other contained patients could only use self-care strategies, especially in countries that have set up a long and strict containment such as France. The study aimed to compare coping strategies deployed by patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS; a poorly recognised syndrome) to those with better known and referenced chronic conditions. An online flash survey was conducted during the containment period in partnership with French Patients Organizations including ME/CFS national association. Therefore, 'Brief COPE' version of Lazarus and Folkman's Ways of Coping Check List has been adapted to the specificity of the containment. The survey was e-distributed in France from 15 April to 11 May 2020. Differences of coping strategies were analyzed using Wilcoxon-Mann-Withney test. Amongst 637 responses, 192 were complete, presenting a wide variety of diseases, including 93 ME/CFS. The latter have significantly different coping strategies than recognised diagnosed diseases patients: similar uses of emotion focused coping but less uses of seek social support and problem-focused copings. In conclusion, coping strategies are different for those who deal with the daily experience of ME/CFS, highly disabling chronic condition with diagnostic ambiguity, low degree of medical and social recognition and without treatment. Better understanding of those strategies is needed to provide the means for health promotion researchers, managers and clinicians, to accompany those patients.

Patterns of control beliefs in chronic fatigue syndrome: results of a population-based survey

Background

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) represents a unique clinical challenge for patients and health care providers due to unclear etiology and lack of specific treatment. Characteristic patterns of behavior and cognitions might be related to how CFS patients respond to management strategies.

Methods

This study investigates control beliefs in a population-based sample of 113 CFS patients, 264 individuals with insufficient symptoms or fatigue for CFS diagnosis (ISF), and 124 well individuals.

Results

Controlling for personality and coping, individuals with low confidence in their problem-solving capacity were almost 8 times more likely to be classified as ISF and 5 times more likely to be classified as CFS compared to being classified as well. However there was a wide distribution within groups and individuals with “low confidence” scores were found in 31.7% of Well individuals. Individuals with low levels of anxiety and who were more outgoing were less likely to be classified as ISF or CFS.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that fostering control beliefs could be an important focus for developing behavioral management strategies in CFS and other chronic conditions.