The Relationship Between Negative Mood States and Fatigue

Abstract

Depression is a prevalent disorder estimated to affect 121 million people at a given time. Those who have depression suffer predominantly from negative mood states and are believed to be at risk of other debilitative conditions such as sleep disorder, fatigue, and heart disease. This paper is interested in exploring the relationship between depressive mood and fatigue. To obtain a better understanding of the association between these two problems, the relationship between depression and fatigue in a non-clinical population was studied. A group of fifty participants aged between 17 to 60 years completed the Profile of Mood-States (POMS) before participating in a simulated driving task aimed at inducing fatigue.The Chalder Fatigue Scale (CFS) was administered both before and after driving. Negative mood states such as depression, tension and anger were found to have strong positive correlations with fatigue (p<.05). Furthermore, there was a consistent trend for people with low levels of negative mood states such as depressive mood, tension and anger to drive for longer without fatiguing, relative to those with higher levels of negative mood states. Findings suggest that negative mood states decrease the time a person can perform a simulated driving task before they fatigue and implications for road and work safety and the management for people who are depressed are discussed.