Understanding how people with multiple sclerosis (MS) deal with day-to-day fluctuations in fatigue: are some ways of thinking and behaving more adaptive?

Fatigue is an important complaint in MS and detrimental to social participation and quality of life (QoL). Despite good evidence that individuals with more fatigue have poorer QoL, little is known about how individuals cope with fatigue on a daily basis and which cognitive and behavioural responses are more adaptive. Individuals frequently cite symptom unpredictability as detrimental to QoL, but day-to-day fluctuations/changes in fatigue (symptom dynamics) are not routinely captured. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA; repeated, frequent real-time assessment) provides an opportunity to work with individuals to assess and investigate changes in fatigue over time (1,2) and examine whether certain responses are associated with better outcomes. Individuals typically engaging in “all-or-nothing” or “rest/avoidance” responses have been shown to have worse fatigue and adjustment outcomes in MS(3) but little is known about response variability: when, where, and why do certain responses occur? In chronic fatigue syndrome, research suggests cognitive and behavioural responses to fatigue are not stable over time.(4). This project will work with individuals using a mixed methods approach (EMA and data-prompted qualitative interviewing) to address three main aims: development of outcomes capturing day-to-day fatigue dynamics; examination of associations between fatigue and real-time cognitive and behavioural responses; and testing, for each individual, when such responses are (or are not) dysfunctional resulting in more fatigue, less social participation, and poorer QoL.

Prerequisites:

Candidates should hold, or expect to hold:

• a master’s degree in health psychology or other health-related discipline;
• a first degree in a relevant discipline at 2:1 or above.

Please contact your intended supervisor to discuss the project and your suitability for it before submitting your application.

The project is a part of SPRINT-MND/MS, a new Scotland-wide PhD scheme for research into motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis. Projects, encompassing a wide range of topics including laboratory, clinical, and social sciences, are available at Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews universities. This exciting initiative provides a great opportunity for budding researchers in any field related to MND or MS to join Scotland’s network of world-leading scientists and health professionals. Find more information here: http://www.edneurophd.ed.ac.uk/sprint-mndms-phd-programme.