Definition of "neurasthenia" [‖Neu•ras•the•ni•a]

• A psychological disorder characterized by chronic fatigue and weakness, loss of memory, and generalized aches and pains, formerly thought to result from exhaustion of the nervous system. No longer in scientific use. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "While the term neurasthenia is becoming daily more familiar to the general public, it is being, on the whole, used, except as a convenient handle, rather less among neurologists."
• "In her presence he always felt a rage against what he called her neurasthenia -- a word he frequently used in drawing up bills for divorce."
• "So, recognizing the accuracy of the beautiful analysis of Professor Déjérine of what he calls neurasthenia, we venture to assimilate it with the equally true analysis which Babinski has made of the immediate mechanism of what he wishes to call pithiatism."
• "In the condition known as neurasthenia, which is often taken as a type of a functional disease, the basal and intrinsic cause is activity of the nervous system with the using up of material which is not compensated for by the renewal which comes in repose and sleep."