↓ Skip to main content

Investigating unexplained fatigue in general practice with a particular focus on CFS/ME

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Primary Care, July 2016
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#37 of 2,359)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (96th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (95th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
1 news outlet
blogs
2 blogs
twitter
39 X users
peer_reviews
1 peer review site
facebook
9 Facebook pages
wikipedia
3 Wikipedia pages
googleplus
1 Google+ user
reddit
1 Redditor

Citations

dimensions_citation
14 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
120 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
Investigating unexplained fatigue in general practice with a particular focus on CFS/ME
Published in
BMC Primary Care, July 2016
DOI 10.1186/s12875-016-0493-0
Pubmed ID
Authors

Amolak S Bansal

Abstract

Unexplained fatigue is not infrequent in the community. It presents a number of challenges to the primary care physician and particularly if the clinical examination and routine investigations are normal. However, while fatigue is a feature of many common illnesses, it is the main problem in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME). This is a poorly understood condition that is accompanied by several additional symptoms which suggest a subtle multisystem dysfunction. Not infrequently it is complicated by sleep disturbance and alterations in attention, memory and mood.Specialised services for the diagnosis and management of CFS/ME are markedly deficient in the UK and indeed in virtually all countries around the world. However, unexplained fatigue and CFS/ME may be confidently diagnosed on the basis of specific clinical criteria combined with the normality of routine blood tests. The latter include those that assess inflammation, autoimmunity, endocrine dysfunction and gluten sensitivity. Early diagnosis and intervention in general practice will do much to reduce patient anxiety, encourage improvement and prevent expensive unnecessary investigations.There is presently an on-going debate as to the precise criteria that best confirms CFS/ME to the exclusion of other medical and psychiatric/psychological causes of chronic fatigue. There is also some disagreement as to best means of investigating and managing this very challenging condition. Uncertainty here can contribute to patient stress which in some individuals can perpetuate and aggravate symptoms. A simple clinical scoring system and a short list of routine investigations should help discriminate CFS/ME from other causes of continued fatigue.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 39 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 120 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 120 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 17 14%
Student > Master 16 13%
Researcher 13 11%
Student > Doctoral Student 9 8%
Other 8 7%
Other 22 18%
Unknown 35 29%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 24 20%
Psychology 18 15%
Nursing and Health Professions 15 13%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 6 5%
Neuroscience 4 3%
Other 19 16%
Unknown 34 28%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 57. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 November 2023.
All research outputs
#749,058
of 25,374,917 outputs
Outputs from BMC Primary Care
#37
of 2,359 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#14,882
of 377,264 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Primary Care
#2
of 46 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,374,917 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,359 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 377,264 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 46 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.