Daily Social Enjoyment Interrupts the Cycle of Same-Day and Next-Day Fatigue in Women with Fibromyalgia

Background: Fatigue is a debilitating symptom of fibromyalgia (FM) that has limited treatment options. Some evidence, however, has linked positive social engagement with reduced within-day fatigue.Purpose: This study elaborated longitudinal within-day and across-day relations between FM fatigue and social enjoyment.Methods: One hundred seventy-six women with FM completed 21-day automated diaries assessing morning and end-of-day fatigue, and both afternoon social enjoyment and stress within two social domains: non-spousal and spousal.Results: In the non-spousal domain, analysis supported a mediational path from lower morning fatigue to higher afternoon social enjoyment, which predicted lower end-of-day fatigue, and subsequently, lower next-morning fatigue. Enjoyment exerted a greater impact on within-day fatigue than did stress. Patterns in the spousal domain were similar, but the mediated path was nonsignificant.Conclusions: Positive social engagement offers relief from FM fatigue that carries over across days and may provide an additional target to enhance the effectiveness of current interventions.