1. Plural of psychasthenia; a neurotic condition characterized by obsessive thoughts, phobias, and mental fatigue, historically diagnosed in early 20th-century psychiatry.
Usage: archaic; medical/psychiatric history; largely superseded by modern diagnostic categories such as anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Examples

• Early psychiatrists classified various psychasthenias under the broader category of neurotic disorders.
• The term psychasthenias appeared frequently in 19th and early 20th-century medical literature.
• Modern diagnostic manuals no longer use the term psychasthenias, having replaced it with more specific conditions.
• Patients diagnosed with psychasthenias often experienced intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviors.
• The concept of psychasthenias reflected the psychiatric understanding of mental illness before contemporary neuroscience.