Psychiatry Research
Volume 153, Issue 2 , Pages 171-177 , 31 October 2007

Symptoms of neurasthenia following earthquake trauma: Re-examination of a discarded syndrome

  • Wei Zhang

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Duke University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Box 3812, Durham, NC 27710, USA. Tel.: +919 684 5645; fax: +919 684 8866.
    • ,
  • Li-Ching Lee

      Affiliations

    • Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
    • ,
  • Kathryn M. Connor

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
    • ,
  • Chia-Ming Chang

      Affiliations

    • Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University and Department of Psychiatry, Chung Shan Medical Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Te-Jen Lai

      Affiliations

    • Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University and Department of Psychiatry, Chung Shan Medical Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Jonathan R.T. Davidson

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

Received 26 April 2005 ,Revised 14 November 2005 ,Accepted 21 April 2006.

References 

  1. Allbutt TC. Traumatic neurasthenia. In:  Allbutt TC editors. A System of Medicine. London: MacMillan; 1899;p. 164–176
  2. Amaya-Jackson L, Davidson JR, Hughes DC, Swartz M, Reynolds V, George LK, et al. Functional impairment and utilization of services associated with posttraumatic stress in the community. Journal of Traumatic Stress. 1999;12:709–724
  3. Broadhead WE, Blazer DG, George LK, Tse CK. Depression, disability days, and days lost from work in a prospective epidemiologic survey. JAMA. 1990;264:2524–2528
  4. Burton-Fanning FW. Neurasthenia in soldiers of the home forces. The Lancet. 1917;189:907–911
  5. Carson RC, Butcher JN, Coleman JC. Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life. 8th ed.. Glenview IL: Longman; 1988;
  6. Cheng TA, Williams P. The design and development of a screening questionnaire (CHQ) for use in community studies of mental disorders in Taiwan. Psychological Medicine. 1986;16:415–422
  7. Davidson JRT, Book SW, Colket JT, Tupler LA, Roth S, David D, et al. Assessment of a new self-rating scale for post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychological Medicine. 1997;27:153–160
  8. Hickie I, Hadzi-Pavlovic D, Ricci C. Reviving the diagnosis of neurasthenia. Psychological Medicine. 1997;27:989–994
  9. Hickie I, Davenport T, Issakidis C, Andrews G. Neurasthenia: prevalence, disability and health care characteristics in the Australian community.[see comment]. British Journal of Psychiatry. 2002;181:56–61
  10. ICD-10 . International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. 10th ed.. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1992;
  11. Kleinman A. Neurasthenia and depression: a study of somatization and culture in China. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry. 1982;6:117–190
  12. Lai TJ, Chang CM, Connor KM, Lee LC, Davidson JRT. Full and partial PTSD among earthquake survivors in rural Taiwan. Journal of Psychiatric Research. 2004;38:313–322
  13. Osler W. Medical mobilization and the war. JAMA. 1917;17:290
  14. Sartorius N, Kaelber CT, Cooper JE, Roper MT, Rae DS, Gulbinat W, et al. Progress toward achieving a common language in psychiatry. Results from the field trial of the clinical guidelines accompanying the WHO classification of mental and behavioral disorders in ICD-10. Archives of General Psychiatry. 1993;50:115–124
  15. Sengoopta C. ‘A mob of incoherent symptoms’? Neurasthenia in British medical discourse, 1860–1920. Clio Medica. 2001;63:97–115
  16. Shapiro S, Skinner EA, Kessler LG, Von Korff M, German PS, Tischler GL, et al. Utilization of health and mental health services. Three Epidemiologic Catchment Area sites. Archives of General Psychiatry. 1984;41:971–978
  17. Sheehan DV. The Anxiety Disease. New York: Bantam; 1983;
  18. Sheehan DV, Lecrubier Y, Sheehan KH, Amorim P, Janavs J, Weiller E, et al. The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.): the development and validation of a structured diagnostic psychiatric interview for DSM-IV and ICD-10. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 1998;59:22–33(quiz 34–57)
  19. Taylor RE. Death of neurasthenia and its psychological reincarnation: a study of neurasthenia at the National Hospital for the Relief and Cure of the Paralysed and Epileptic, Queen Square, London, 1870–1932. British Journal of Psychiatry. 2001;179:550–557
  20. Wessely S. Neurasthenia and chronic fatigue. In:  Porter R,  Berrios G editor. The History of Psychiatry. London: Athlone; 1996;p. 509–532
  21. Wessely S, White PD. There is only one functional somatic syndrome. British Journal of Psychiatry. 2004;185:95–96
  22. Wilson A, Hickie I, Hadzi-Pavlovic D, Wakefield D, Parker G, Straus SE, et al. What is chronic fatigue syndrome? Heterogeneity within an international multicentre study. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 2001;35:520–527
  23. Zhang MY. The diagnosis and phenomenology of neurasthenia. A Shanghai study. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry. 1989;13:147–161
  24. Zheng YP, Lin KM, Takeuchi D, Kurasaki KS, Wang Y, Cheung F. An epidemiological study of neurasthenia in Chinese–Americans in Los Angeles. Comprehensive Psychiatry. 1997;38:249–259

PII: S0165-1781(06)00122-3

doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2006.04.021

Psychiatry Research
Volume 153, Issue 2 , Pages 171-177 , 31 October 2007

Article Tools