Clinical lectures on neurasthenia.

  • Savill, Thomas Dixon, 1856-1910.
Date:
1902
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Clinical lectures on neurasthenia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    Let us analyse this statement a little more closely. In neurasthenia we have two qualities, a weakness, and an irritability of the central nervous system, and the mental symptoms seem to depend chiefly upon the former. Among the mental symptoms loss of Memory is perhaps the commonest. So frequently is amnesia met with, that I gave it, you will remember, among the definite symptoms of the disease (Lecture II.). It may be one of the partial forms (lb), or it may be a complete form (la). On the whole, I think partial forms are more common. For example, a man whose malady dated from his rescue of a burning child four years before, described his mental defect thus: u When I want to say something, it seems as though I could not get the words out; I know the words but I cannot say them. He is suffering, you will observe, from aphemia. I have met with several cases where the visual or auditory memory failed, the other kinds of memory remaining perfect, the patient gradually learning to conceal the defect by the use of the other forms. Deficient power of concentrating the Attention is equally common, and a large number of these patients come because they cannot on this account transact business. Not infre- quently they find themselves unable to write a letter. In several instances inability to write letters has been the first serious symptom which induced them to consult a doctor. When deficient power of attention is carried further still, it leads to confusion of thought. This is always a symptom of some gravity, for it indicates extreme mental exhaustion, and patients should come under treatment without delay. Excess of Attention is not met with in neurasthenia, and thus there is no fear of confusing this condition with cases of monoi'deism and ecstasy. Deficiency of the Will is another symptom in neurasthenia,