# Neurasthenia: An Old Disease for Modern Times



## SifuPhil (Nov 1, 2013)

It's time we brought back *Neurasthenia* as a legitimate disease.

Back in the early 1900's _neurasthenia_ was a favored diagnosis for patients who exhibited chronic fatigue, nervousness, headaches, fainting, sleeplessness and irritability. Now, although the disease had been dropped from the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the "Bible" of psychiatry and psychology) in 1980 and many clinicians view *Chronic Fatigue Syndrome* as being the modern-day equivalent of neurasthenia, there is a cultural element that has been overlooked. That element is modern life.

*Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)* still uses neurasthenia as a valid diagnostic conclusion, in part because TCM recognizes the mental, emotional and physical effects of a modern, stressful lifestyle upon the health of the patient. These were often the same culprits pointed out in the early 1900's, but pooh-poohed as being irrelevant by the current crop of wonder workers.  

In the 1983 version of _Chinese-English Terminology of Traditional Chinese Medicine_, the  presenting symptoms of neurasthenia are described as a decrease in vital energy (_qi_).  Harmful factors to the patient's body  reduce the functioning of the five internal organ systems (“_wuzang_”: heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys),which leads to deficiency of vital energy (_qi_) and lower bodily resistance.

In 1983, Xu and Zhon established an elaborate set of diagnostic criteria for neurasthenia, known as _shenjingshuairou_ (“weakness of nerves” in Chinese). Currently these are found in the _Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders_(CCMD-2).  Unlike the ICD-10 (World Health Organization's_ International Classification of Diseases_) definition of neurasthenia with its core symptom of  fatigue, that included in the CCDM-2 cites no dominant symptom in the  diagnosis. Three of the following five symptoms are required: “weakness”  symptoms,“emotional” symptoms, “excitement” symptoms,tension-induced  pain, and sleep disturbance. The duration of illness must beat least 3  months, and one of the following is required: disruption of work,study,  daily life, or social functioning; significant distress caused by  the illness; or pursuit of treatment. Other clinical conditions that may  produce similar symptoms must be absent.

It's far past the time when Western medicine needs to recognize that the hectic pace, information overload and increasingly technical nature of modern life can and often does lead to "burn-out", in this case labeled as _neurasthenia_.


----------



## dbeyat45 (Nov 1, 2013)

Most deaths, in the distant past, were recorded as 'heart failure' so a catch-all like _neurasthenia_ is a good idea, IMNSHO.


----------



## That Guy (Nov 1, 2013)




----------



## Anne (Nov 1, 2013)

I think I must have that - along with a *lot *of other people.


----------



## SifuPhil (Nov 1, 2013)

@ That Guy - the Heidelberg Belt! I knew I could count on you to slip that in! 

@Anne - yep, all the more reason to bring back the classification.


----------



## Diwundrin (Nov 1, 2013)

> @Anne - yep, all the more reason to bring back the classification.



They have, kinda. They call it 'Fibromyalgia' now apparently.  All the symptoms indicate multiple causes but they're tackling it from a different viewpoint and are finding they're linked and that it's neurologically, rather than purely physically caused.  Sounds a similar syndrome doesn't it?  
No magic bullet cure found yet though unfortunately, just tweaking a lot of small things, mentally and physically eases it for me, mostly staying away from other people's dramas, that helps immensely. Hardly bothers me lately.   But each person has different reasons for triggering it...  sounds even more like 'neurasthenia' eh?  There seems to be a genetic link with R.Arthritis, could be that people prone to one are also prone to the other but not usually both. R.A. attacks the tissues, Fibro affects the nervous system and leaves no physical evidence.  I'll settle for that version of the gene, R.A. runs in the family.
 It's a mystery and a lot deeper than popping a pain killer, and I don't sell the Chinese short, they were onto something there long before Western medicos even started looking in that direction.


----------



## SifuPhil (Nov 1, 2013)

I've always thought that neurasthenia, CFS and fibro were all the same beast, just showing different heads at different times. 

Interesting link between RA and fibro - I know there's been some work done in that field but I'm not sure they've established any concrete correlations yet.


----------



## Diwundrin (Nov 1, 2013)

It's more a suspicion than a theory yet about the genetic link.  I've been thinking back over my own 'lineage' and there does seem to be some sense to it though.  The gene, in my family at least, seemed to pass from father to daughter then mother to son. Too many instances to totally write off as coincidence. I was lucky, my mother, and her father, and his mother, had R.A. maybe being female I got the lesser Fibro version?
One of her brothers, who didn't get RA himself,  has passed it on  to 2 of his 3 children and the other shows some Fibro type CFS traits.  Worth wondering about anyway.  Stress seems to trigger both in the few incidences I can trace in that much detail. The onset was after or during a 'drama' of some kind.


----------



## Rainee (Nov 5, 2013)

This is very interesting as I have a genetic mutant gene called Iron over load.. medical name of Haemochromotosis.. too much iron in your system and it causes endless problems.. fatigue.. weakness.. if the iron is not got rid of it damages the organs... and the only way to drop it down is to have it taken at the blood bank each 3 months till your down in maintenance level but you still have to watch what you eat like non haem iron foods and haem iron which is the worse of the two... the body simply can`t break down the iron .. its a real problem as after 70 no more blood donations can be taken so what happens then? I am in maintenance mode but it has crept up a bit so in December go to donate the blood as it can be used as I am under the limit.. if your over the limit they throw it down the drain... bit of a shame but its poisonous to others then... olden times it was called blood letting.. so this is another of those older diseases which now has been brought out to the open and more seem to know about it.. pretty common in Irish genetics it was nicknamed then the rusty iron syndrome.. if you want to read up about it its on the Haemochromotosis web site..www.haemochromatosis.org.


----------

