Tag: fatigue

News

Big grant for research on exhaustion and fatigue

Great news for patients suffering from – and clinicians dealing with – fatigue and exhaustion: Elin Lindsäter has received a 5 million SEK grant from Forte for her project on new methods for assessment and treatment in primary care for fatigue as a transdiagnostic symptom dimension.

Elin and her team have been approaching the issue of fatigue and exhaustion disorder (ED, svenska: utmattningssyndrom) for several years. In a qualitative study aimed at broadening the understanding of the symptoms of the condition, they found that fatigue is the core symptom of ED. Fatigue is also a central symptom in other conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and post COVID-19. Looking at fatigue as a transdiagnostic symptom instead of, for example, the specifically Swedish diagnosis of ED enables treatment of other conditions where patients experience fatigue. Moreover, researchers can work cumulatively from the international fatigue research instead of the limited diagnosis-specific field of ED.

Congratulation Elin et al.! This research will benefit many patients suffering from disabling fatigue.

Elin Lindsäter. Photo: Micke Sandström

Click here to read more about Elin and her team’s research on fatigue, chronic stress and exhaustion.

News

Elin Lindsäter on fatigue as a transdiagnostic symptom dimension

There are many ways in which Elin Lindsäter’s research is relevant right now.

Last week, Elin and Dutch professor Hans Knoop discussed the current state of knowledge about fatigue as a transdiagnostic symptom dimension (in ME, CFS, post-COVID and multiple sclerosis) and the Swedish diagnosis of fatigue syndrome, in a seminar at KI.

“Exhaustion disorder is one of the most common and costly mental disorders in Sweden, responsible for more long-term sickness absence than any other psychiatric or somatic disorder in the country. However, evidence for the validity of the diagnosis is limited and there are no evidence-based treatments. Recent research findings indicate that fatigue, the core symptom of exhaustion disorder, might better be conceptualized as a transdiagnostic symptom dimension rather than a disorder-specific pathophysiology. Fatigue severity across patient groups is primarily explained by transdiagnostic factors and the same moderators and mediators of treatment effect have been found across diagnostic samples.“

The moderator of the seminar was Christian Rück.

This Sunday, Elin also talked about exhaustion in the podcast “I hjärnan på Louise Epstein”. Click here to listen at sverigesradio.se.

News

Elin in a podcast on Exhaustion disorder

Earlier this summer, Elin was a guest on the Hälsa för Livet podcast. She talked about Exhaustion disorder (Utmattningssyndrom in Swedish): the current state of research, myths and treatment.

Elin Lindsäter is a psychologist and PhD. Her research focuses on chronic stress, exhaustion and fatigue and on developing new evidence-based treatments for these conditions.

You can listen to the podcast here (in Swedish).

Read more about Elin’s project here.