Neurasthenia, myalgic encephalitis or cryptogenic chronic fatigue syndrome?

摘要

In the nineteenth century, neurasthenia was a fashionable diagnosis and was thought to be both the consequence and the cause of numerous social problems; it was the price to be paid for industrialization, the rise of capitalism and the consequent strains to which the business and professional classes were exposed. It was 'a condition of nervous exhaustion characterised by undue fatigue on slightest exertion, both physical and mental, with which were associated symptoms of abnormal functioning, mainly referable to disorders of the vegetative nervous system'. The core symptom was neuromuscular weakness which 'comes early, is extreme, and lasts long'. In spite of 'abnormally quick fatigueability and slow recuperation', sufferers looked generally well and no objective signs of disease could be found.