Objectives: Describe the evolution of fatigue and examine correlatesn between self-reported somatic, motor, and memory/attention symptoms with fatigue in the first year after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Hypothesis: Self-reported fatigue severity will correspond to somatic, motor, and memory/attention symptoms during the first year following TBI. Participants: Twenty-seven individuals with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury, admitted to the inpatient rehabilitation service at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center from December 2002 to September 2004, were followed longitudinally. Methods: Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and the Neurobehavioral Functioning Inventory (NFI) somatic, motor, and memory/attention subscales, administered during rehabilitation (T1), at 6 months post-TBI (T2), and at 1-year post-TBI (T3). Changes over time were determined using ANOVA and Bonferroni/Dunn. Correlations were determined using the Spearman rank correlation. Results: Subjects reported more severe fatigue at T1 (M = 3.66, SD = 1.43, critical difference = 0.977, P = .0092) than at T2 (M = 2.59, SD = 1.34) or T3 (M = 2.86, SD = 1.58). FSS and NFI subscale scores were poorly correlated at T1 (r = -0.19 to 0.27), but were significantly correlated at T2 (r = 0.35 to 0.44) and T3 (r = 0.34 to 0.51). Conclusions: Fatigue severity and self-reported somatic, motor, and memory/attention symptoms were correlated at 6 months and 1 year post-TBI, but not during inpatient rehabilitation, even though subjects reported more severe fatigue. Fatigue may be worse during rehabilitation because of therapy demands, while awareness of deficits and the effects of fatigue may become more explicit as the time since injury increases.

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