Investigation of fatigue, mental well-being and tachycardia in short- and long-term metformin use

Purpose: The current study aimed compare short and long-term metformin users according to socio-demographic characteristics and to examine the relationships between fatigue, tachycardia and psychological well-being. Materials and Methods: In cross-sectional study were reached 92 patients, 46 short-term and 46 long-term metformin users. It was measured fatigue with the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Treatment-Fatigue Scale (FACIT-F), tachycardia with saturation device, well-being with the World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5). Results: For the group using short-term metformin, the mean; year of metformin use was 1.82±0.77 and pulse rate was 82.48±8.80, FACIT-F score was 20.37±7.25, and WHO-5 score was 15.70±3.23. The group using long-term metformin mean year of metformin use was 5.93±2.68, pulse rate was 84.57±9.64, FACIT-F score was 25.33±5.65 and WHO-5 score was 12.63±3.70. Well-being is negatively correlated with the year of diabetes, year of metformin use, pulse rate and fatigue. FACIT-F, metformin year and pulse rate explain a total of 41.9% of the variance in well-being. FACIT-F (β=-.51, t=-5.82, p= .000) and the year of metformin use (β=-.19, t=-2.12, p= .037) significantly decrease well-being, while pulse rate does not have a significant effect on well-being. Conclusions: Long-term use of metformin has been found cause fatigue and negative psychological well-being. Fatigue, year of metformin use and pulse rate number are important predictors of psychological well-being in Type II diabetes patients using metformin.