Neurasthenia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Neurasthenia is a complex of symptoms characterized by chronic fatigue and weakness, loss of memory, and generalized aches and pains. While it remains on the World Health Organization’s Internal Classification of Diseases, the condition is no longer included in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and has been pretty much abandoned as a medical condition. However, rather than disappearing, people who suffer conditions resembling what used to be called neurasthenia are commonly diagnosed as having depression, anxiety, or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
In Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the condition falls within the disease category “Xu Lao” (literally: Taxation Fatigue). TCM recognizes that there are varying pathological manifestations in this group of people, and in order to achieve best therapeutic results, different treatment method are selected on the basis of individual constitution.
It is not easy to recover from these types of conditions. TCM considers that there are often “hidden” factors prohibiting the body’s own innate healing ability. These hidden factors can reside just beneath the skin or deeply inside a joint; sometimes they hide between body tissues and sometimes they are hiding in the way of how a person thinks.
The strength of TCM in the treatment of these types of conditions lies in the holistic approach of TCM. When allopathic medicine is unable to trace the cause of a disease to an isolated organ or tissue, the systematic approach of TCM can often provide very good insight. There is an extensive amount of TCM literature – both ancient and modern – related to the treatment of these kinds of conditions. It can provide encouraging results and treatment options for these patients, and the results are relatively good compared to many other therapies.
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