NEURASTHENIA (Gr. veuupov, nerve, and lur%veta, weakness)

This article appears in Volume V19, Page 428 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: NAN-NEW

NEURASTHENIA (Gr. veuupov, nerve, and lur%veta, weakness) , the general medical term for a

condition

CONDITION (Lat. condicio, from condicere, to agree upon, arrange; not connected with conditio, from condere, conditum, to put together)

of weakness of the nervous system. The symptoms may present themselves as follows: (r) general feeling of malaise, combined with a mixed state of excitement and depression; (2) headache, sometimes with the addition of vertigo, deafness and a transitory clouding of consciousness simulating petit mal or migraine; (3) disturbed and restless, unrefreshing sleep, often troubled with dreams; (4) weakness of memory, especially for

recent

RECENT

events; (5) blurring of sight, noises or ringing in the ears; (6) variable disturbances of sensibility, especially scattered analgesia (partial and symmetrical) affecting the backs of the hands especially, and in women the breasts; (7) various troubles of sympathetic origin, notably localized coldness, particularly in the extremities, morbid heats, flushings and sweats; (8) various phenomena of nervous depression associated with functional disturbances of organs, e.g. muscular weakness, lack of tone, and sense of fatigue upon effort, dyspepsia and gastric atony with dilatation of the stomach and gastralgia; pseudo-anginal attacks and palpitation of the heart; loss of sexual power with nocturnal pollutions and premature ejaculations leading to apprehension of oncoming impotence. Objective signs met with in organic disease are absent, but the knee-jerks are usually exaggerated.
According to the complexity of symptoms, the neurasthenia is more particularly defined as cerebral, spinal, gastric and sexual. The cerebral form is sometimes termed psychasthenia, and is liable to present morbid fears or phobias, e.g. agoraphobia (fright in crowds), monophobia (fright of being alone), claustrophobia (fright of being in a confined place), anthropophobia (fright of society), batophobia (fright of things falling), siderodromophobia (fright of railway travelling). There may also be mental ruminations, in which there is a continuous flow of connected ideas from which there is no breaking away, often most insistent at night and leading to insomnia. Sometimes there is arithmomania (an imperative idea to

count

COUNT (Lat. comes, gen. comitis, Fr. comte, Ital. conte, Span. conde)

). Such cases often exhibit a marked emotionalism and readily manifest joy or sorrow; they may be cynical, pessimistic, introspective and self-centred, only able to talk about themselves or matters of personal

interest

INTEREST

, yet they frequently possess

great

GREAT

intellectual ability, and although there may be mental depression, there is an absence of the insane ideas characteristic of

melancholia

MELANCHOLIA

.
Traumatic neurasthenia is the neurasthenia following

shock

SHOCK, or COLLAPSE

from injury; it is sometimes termed " railway spine," " railway brain," from the frequency with which it occurs after railway accidents, especially in people of a nervous temperament. The physical injury at the time may be slight, so that the patient is able to resume

work

WORK

, but symptoms develop later which may simulate serious organic disease. As in all forms of neurasthenia, the subjective symptoms may be numerous and varied, whereas the objective signs are but few and slight. Many difficulties, therefore, present themselves in arriving at a sound

opinion

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

as to the future in such cases. It is desirable not only to study the case carefully, but to obtain some knowledge of the previous history of an individual who is claiming

damages

DAMAGES (through O. Fr. damage, mod. Fr. dommage, from Lat. damnum, loss)

on account of traumatic neurasthenia. (F. W. Mo.)

End of Article: NEURASTHENIA (Gr. veuupov, nerve, and lur%veta, weakness)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/NAN_NEW/NEURASTHENIA_Gr_veuupov_nerve_.html">
NEURASTHENIA (Gr. veuupov, nerve, and lur%veta,...
</a>

(Previous)
NEURALGIA (Gr. veiipov, nerve, and iXyos, pain)

(Next)
NEURI

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email