Description :

Neurasthenia was used by nineteenth century american doctors to explain a wide variety of symptoms not satisfactorily covered by existing diseases it was not a discrete illness but rather a disease category that attributed a variety of ailments to the nervous system and proved to be flexible in its scientific applications. The historical background of neurasthenia and its current status are discussed along with the epidemiology and phenomenology of somatization and depression findings are presented from a combined clinical and anthropological field study of 100 patients with neurasthenia in the psychiatry outpatient clinic at the hunan medical college. Neurasthenia can be diagnosed in people who suffer from exhaustion after minor mental or physical exertion a feeling of discomfort combined with a state of depression and excitement this is accompanied by muscle aches dizziness sleep disturbances and a lot of irritability