Non-Pharmacological Therapy to Improving the Health Related Quality of Life in Patients Suffering with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is defined by excessive exhaustion that lasts for at least 6 months and that is not properly understood by an underlying medical condition (Reeves et al., 2007). Physical or mental exertion makes the tiredness worse.  Sufficient resting periods do not make it better. There are several ideas about the origin of chronic fatigue syndrome, varying from viral infections to psychological stress. Some medical professionals think a number of variables may contribute to the development of chronic fatigue syndrome. Age and Sex are the two mentionable factors that may contribute to the elevated risk of CFS. Exercise based rehabilitation, Massage therapy, Electrical stimulation are some of the mentionable physical therapies that are used for the management of the condition.

Aim

To understand the role of physical therapy in improving the quality of life in patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome due to COVID 19 and cancer chemotherapy

Data sources

The various references articles were collected from five distinct databases which included Medline, PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, and Scopus.

Study selection

Only RCT were considered for the study. The various research papers, abstracts and any other presentations were excluded.

Data extraction

Descriptive information about the number of patients, therapy and outcomes were extracted from the papers

Data synthesis

A final of 40 RCT’s were included for the review paper. Of the various RCT for cancer and COVID related fatigue reduction exercise was found to have beneficial effects in most of the studies. Massage therapy also showed significant improvement in patients. However, transelectrical nerve stimulation there was not much difference between control and intervention groups. Though many of the trials showed favorable outcomes for exercise and massage some of the trials contradicted the observation.

Limitations

In this review only cancer and COVID-19 related fatigue could be considered. The fatigue due to Dengue or any other viral disease though existent there are no recorded trials. Thus this study is exclusively limited to two of major diseases only.

Conclusion

This review highlights the fact that physical therapy in fact has a positive effect on reducing fatigue. However, not all forms of physical therapy are successful for this. Further research and trials are needed to see if physical therapy other than exercise and message could be helpful in controlling the fatigue.