Journal of psychosomatic research
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To test the theory that postoperative fatigue is an aspect of the emotional, not physiological, response to surgery, we examined whether fatigue is a component of subjective experience after surgery and whether it is related to subjective physical or emotional state. ⋯ In surgical patients, the language of fatigue and energy describes empirically distinct components of emotional state. Explanations for postoperative fatigue should therefore be sought in emotional, not physiological, mechanisms.