Neurasthenia

Neurasthenia
Pronunciation
SpecialtyPsychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy Edit this on Wikidata
Symptomsfatigue, lethargy, stress-related headache, insomnia, irritability, malaise, restlessness, stress, and weariness[1][2]
Differential diagnosisanxiety, asthenia, chronic fatigue, fatigue, lethargy[3][2][4]
TreatmentElectrotherapy, rest[5]

Neurasthenia (from the Ancient Greek νεῦρον neuron "nerve" and ἀσθενής asthenés "weak") is a term that was first used as early as 1829[6] for a mechanical weakness of the nerves.[clarification needed] It became a major diagnosis in North America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries after neurologist George Miller Beard reintroduced the concept in 1869.[2]

As a psychopathological term, the first to publish on neurasthenia was Michigan alienist E. H. Van Deusen of the Kalamazoo asylum in 1869.[7] Also in 1868, New York neurologist George Beard used the term in an article published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal[1] to denote a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headache, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, neuralgia, and depressed mood. Van Deusen associated the condition with farm wives made sick by isolation and a lack of engaging activity; Beard connected the condition to busy society women and overworked businessmen.

Neurasthenia was a diagnosis in the World Health Organization's ICD-10, but deprecated, and thus no more diagnosable, in ICD-11.[2][8] It also is no longer included as a diagnosis in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.[9] The condition is, however, described in the Chinese Society of Psychiatry's Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders.

Americans were said to be particularly prone to neurasthenia, which resulted in the nickname "Americanitis"[10] (popularized by William James[11]). Another (albeit rarely used) term for neurasthenia is nervosism.[12]

  1. ^ a b Beard, G (1869). "Neurasthenia, or nervous exhaustion". The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. 80 (13): 217–221. doi:10.1056/NEJM186904290801301.
  2. ^ a b c d Connor, Henry (2022-10-20). "Doctors and 'Educational Overpressure' in Nineteenth-Century Britain: A Fatigue State that Divided Medical Opinion". European Journal for the History of Medicine and Health. -1 (aop): 3–38. doi:10.1163/26667711-bja10026. ISSN 2666-7703.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Models was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference ICD_10_raw was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Taylor2001 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Good, John Mason (1829). The study of medicine. New York: Harper and Brothers. pp. (ed. 3) IV. 370.
  7. ^ Van Deusen, E. H. (April 1869). "Observations on a form of nervous prostration, (neurasthenia) culminating in insanity". American Journal of Insanity. 25 (4): 445–461. doi:10.1176/ajp.25.4.445.
  8. ^ World Health Organization. "ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics". Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  9. ^ Dimsdale, Joel E.; Xin, Yu; Kleinman, Arthur; Patel, Vikram; Narrow, William E.; Sirovatka, Paul J.; Regier, Darrel A. (2 March 2009). Somatic Presentations of Mental Disorders: Refining the Research Agenda for DSM-V. American Psychiatric Pub. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-89042-656-2.
  10. ^ Marcus, G (1998-01-26). "One Step Back; Where Are the Elixirs of Yesteryear When We Hurt?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
  11. ^ Daugherty, Greg (25 March 2015). "The Brief History of "Americanitis"". Smithsonian. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  12. ^ "Nervosism - Biology-Online Dictionary - Biology-Online Dictionary". www.biology-online.org. December 2020.