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Cited by 265

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 71 of the 71 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Old wine in new bottles: neurasthenia and ‘ME’

Wessely, Simon·1990·Psychological Medicine

Abstract

SYNOPSIS: The history of neurasthenia is discussed in the light of current interest in chronic fatigue, and in particular the illness called myalgic encephalomyelitis (‘ ME ’). A comparison is made of the symptoms, presumed aetiologies and treatment of both illnesses, as well as their social setting. It is shown that neurasthenia remained popular as long as it was viewed as a non-psychiatric, neurological illness caused by environmental factors which affected successful people and for which the cure was rest. The decline in neurasthenia was related to the changes which occurred in each of these views. It is argued that similar factors are associated with the current interest in myalgic encephalomyelitis. It is further argued that neither neurasthenia nor ‘ ME ’ can be fully understood within a single medical or psychiatric model. Instead both have arisen in the context of contemporary explanations and attitudes involving mental illness. Future understanding, treatment and prevention of these and related illnesses will depend upon both psychosocial and neurobiological explanations of physical and mental fatigability.

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Metadata

Authors
Wessely, S.
Venue
Psychological Medicine
Published
1990-02
Volume
20
Issue
1
Pages
35-53
ISSN
  • 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-8978
OpenAlex
W1985118399
Cited by
265
References
71
FWCI
16.39
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Old wine in new bottles: neurasthenia and ‘ME’. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1017/s0033291700013210
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Wessely, S. (1990). Old wine in new bottles: neurasthenia and ‘ME’. Psychological Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291700013210

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

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