Neurasthenia and Depression in Chinese Culture

Abstract

George Beard first used the term “neurasthenia” in a paper read before the New York Medical Journal Association in 1868 and later in his monograph he listed over 50 discrete symptoms and signs which may be grouped into seven major categories as shown in Table I (Nemiah 1975). For half a century following Beard’s work “neurasthenia” became an increasingly popular diagnosis and a flood of publications on this subject appeared in English, French and German. By World War II, however, neurasthenia was mentioned with diminishing frequency in Western countries and many symptoms earlier described by Beard were stripped off from this condition which has returned in a more restricted form with weakness, fatigue and exhaustion as the main manifestation.