neurasthenia

noun

neur·​as·​the·​nia ˌnu̇r-əs-ˈthē-nē-ə 

ˌnyu̇r-

: a condition that is characterized especially by physical and mental exhaustion usually with accompanying symptoms (such as headache and irritability), is of unknown cause but is often associated with depression or emotional stress, and is sometimes considered similar to or identical with chronic fatigue syndrome

neurasthenic

ˌnu̇r-əs-ˈthe-nik 

-ˈthē-

ˌnyu̇r-

adjective or noun

neurasthenically

ˌnu̇r-əs-ˈthe-ni-k(ə-)lē 

-ˈthē-

ˌnyu̇r-

adverb

Examples of neurasthenia in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Indeed, Greeley seemed to be a classic, if unusually tragic, case of what doctors of the day referred to as neurasthenia—a sort of catchall diagnosis encompassing anxiety, depression, insomnia, loss of appetite, physical exhaustion and other symptoms typically attributed to overwork. —Greg Daugherty, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Sep. 2024

But neurasthenia alone wouldn’t account for Greeley’s death. —Greg Daugherty, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Sep. 2024

Mitchell believed that many of his patients suffered from neurasthenia, a something’s-not-quite-right diagnosis that encompassed such symptoms as weakness, lethargy, insomnia, anxiety, depression, and headaches. —Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker, 18 Oct. 2023

Peabody’s muscular Christianity reflected elite anxieties at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries around a loss of manliness and a spreading neurasthenia compared with the rougher pre-industrial times. —Doug Henwood, Harper's magazine, 28 Oct. 2019

The fashionable malaise of neurasthenia was only one of the disorders thought to be caused by a depletion of energies. —Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 6 July 2018

Then neurasthenia was a fashionable disease, and a lot of writers and artists embraced it with a passion. —National Geographic, 19 Aug. 2016

During the second half of the 19th century, neurologists described a condition called neurasthenia, thought to have been brought on by the accelerating pace of modern life. —Nitsuh Abebe, New York Times, 18 Apr. 2017

Nineteenth century neurasthenia theories read very similarly. —National Geographic, 19 Aug. 2016

Word History

Etymology

neur- + asthenia, probably after Italian neurastenia

Note: Italian neurastenia (now nevrastenia) appears to have been introduced, in reference to what was taken to be a form of tetanus (tetano nervoso or tetano astenico "nervous" or "asthenic tetanus"), by the Pavia physician Giuseppe Bergamaschi in "Osservazioni medico-pratiche sul tetano," Giornale di medicina pratica, edited by Valeriano Luigi Brera, fascicolo 29 (settembre-ottobre 1816). Bergamaschi's neurastenia is cited as "neurostenia" in John Mason Good's The Study of Medicine, 2nd edition, vol. 4 (London, 1825), p. 353. The word was reintroduced to refer to a psychological disorder by both the American psychiatrist E.H. Van Deusen ("Observations on a form of nervous prostration, (neurasthenia,) culminating in insanity," American Journal of Insanity, April, 1869, vol. 45, pp. 445-61) and the American neurologist George Miller Beard ("Neurasthenia, or nervous exhaustion," Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, new series vol. 3, no. 13, April 29, 1869, pp. 217-21).

First Known Use

circa 1833, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

neurasthenia

noun

neur·​as·​the·​nia ˌn(y)u̇r-əs-ˈthē-nē-ə 

: a condition that is characterized especially by physical and mental exhaustion usually with accompanying symptoms (as headaches, insomnia, and irritability), is of unknown cause but is often associated with depression or emotional stress, and is sometimes considered similar to or identical with chronic fatigue syndrome