Neurocirculatory Asthenia

Abstract

The problems of war and their effect upon the health of the people again are evident. The strong emotions engendered by war are certain to revive that condition which, common enough during peace times, was unusually prevalent during and following the last great war; namely, neurocirculatory asthenia.

Powerful emotional reactions stimulate the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, and cause well-known responses and sensations throughout the body. These subjective and objective reactions are generally recognized and accepted to be a comparatively normal but nevertheless variable physiologic accompaniment to a particular emotion; that is, hate, fear, patriotism, etc., induce distinctly different subjective feelings in the individual experiencing these emotions.

The systemic reaction to some of the more powerful emotions, such as fear, anxiety, worry, apprehension, despondency, etc., are unpleasant and annoying. Oftentimes these sensations excite further fear and anxiety and induce introspective thoughts. The pleasant emotional states are usually short lived, while the unpleasant sensations of some emotions may frighten the individual to the extent that still stronger reactions are induced, thereby causing a vicious cycle of fear—reaction, more fear—more reaction, etc. In this manner one can visualize the onset of the chronically unstable sympathetic nervous system, which is the fundamental pathological background giving rise to that vague clinical picture to which many names have been applied, but which is best known as neurocirculatory asthenia, hereinafter referred to as N.C.A.

The above theory serves as a working basis to explain the mechanism of N.C.A. Why some individuals are more susceptible. . .