It is the rare adolescent who does not complain of fatigue at some point during the
teen years. For most, their schedules and lifestyles lead to sleep deficits on a regular
basis, with the occurrence of minor viral illnesses often exacerbating the situation.
By and large, adolescents continue to function in their daily activities despite whatever
fatigue they are experiencing. When the complaint of fatigue is raised by the patient
or parent in the physician’s office, it implies there may be something out of the
ordinary about the degree of fatigue being experienced by that adolescent, and the
complaint becomes worthy of attention. It can be the symptom of an underlying medical
condition, a psychological or psychiatric difficulty, or a specific sleep disorder.
This review provides a framework for evaluating the complaint of fatigue in adolescents
and offers approaches to management. This communication is based on the author’s personal
experience in the clinical management of fatigue in adolescents and draws from the
growing literature on the subject. Two particularly useful recent references on this
topic are the December 2010 edition of Adolescent Medicine: State of the Art Reviews on Sleep and Sleep Disorders in Adolescents
1
and the June 2011 edition of Pediatric Clinics of North America, which provides a Pediatric Sleep Medicine Update.
2
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 05, 2012
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© 2013 North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
