SifuPhil
R.I.P. With Us In Spirit Only
- Location
- Pennsylvania, USA
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.
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.
