neurasthenia

[noor-uhs-thee-nee-uh, nyoor-]

noun

1. Psychiatry.,  (not in technical use) nervous debility and exhaustion occurring in the absence of objective causes or lesions; nervous exhaustion.

neurasthenia

/ ˌnjʊərəsˈθɛnɪk, ˌnjʊərəsˈθiːnɪə /

noun

1. an obsolete technical term for a neurosis characterized by extreme lassitude and inability to cope with any but the most trivial tasks

Other Word Forms

• neurasthenic adjective
• neurasthenically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of neurasthenia¹

First recorded in 1855–60; neur- + asthenia

Example Sentences

One of the book’s through-lines is the concept of “neurasthenia,” an old-fashioned term describing a collection of symptoms including headaches, listlessness and low-grade depression.

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Idleness in the poor became neurasthenia in the rich.

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As a child, Jacob was treated for neurasthenia by Jean-Martin Charcot, Freud’s mentor.

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The latter, which made use of ultraviolet irradiation, was considered an effective treatment for hysteria, epilepsy, neurasthenia, migraine, melancholia, mania, insomnia, and a wide variety of other psychiatric, neurological, and general medical disorders.

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During the eighteen-sixties, doctors in America diagnosed an illness called “neurasthenia,” which was characterized by tiredness, headaches, and insomnia, and was thought to be brought on by the anxieties of urbanization.

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