Asthenia

ASTHENIA, asthenia (from the Greek a- negative particle, and sthenos-strength), weakness, debility, a term introduced into common use in the late 18th century by Brown, who divided all diseases into sthenic (or hypersthenic) and asthenic. The latter Brown recommended treating with stimulants, while the former with bloodletting. Incidentally, even such diseases as syphilis, Brown considered suitable for his classification, assigning the latter to sthenic diseases and acting in such cases according to the principle indicated above. Later, Virchow applied the term 'asthenic' to certain forms of inflammation characterized by a small influx of blood to the periphery of inflammatory foci (cases of so-called 'anemic' inflammation, with insufficient development of secondary congestion), as well as by insufficiently intense development of the phenomena in the focus itself, and in the area of thermopathology, they began to speak of asthenic forms of fever in cases of diseases with a sluggish temperature reaction (see Fever). However, the term found much greater application in neuropathology and the doctrine of constitutions: in the first case - to designate nervous diseases known under the name of neurasthenia and psychasthenia, and in the second - to characterize one pathological constitutional type, identified and described by Stiller, under the name asthenic, with a certain habitus, generally corresponding to the habitus phthisicus of older authors, and certain functional peculiarities (tall stature, leanness, long neck, long but narrow and flat chest, dropped shoulders, shoulder blades protruding like wings; weak and hypotonic musculature; small size of the heart; prolapse of internal organs, etc.). For more details - see Constitution.