Couples' perceptions of wives' CFS symptoms, symptom change, and impact on the marital relationship

The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to describe the differences in couples' perceptions of wives' Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) symptoms and to describe the relationship between changing symptoms and the marital relationship. The convenience sample of 131 wives with CFS and their spouses reported symptom changes similarly. However, wives reported significantly higher problem levels for constitutional, fatigue, cognition, central nervous system (CNS), musculoskeletal, and allergy symptom domains and significantly less problem levels of mood disturbance domain than their husbands. Husbands who reported more symptom changes also reported lower marital adjustment, less empathy and support from their wives, and more conflict within the relationship. Wives who reported more symptom changes reported lower marital adjustment, less empathy for their husbands, and more conflict within the relationship and had husbands who reported lower marital adjustment and less empathy and support by the wives.