Young Pablo, Finn Bárbara C, Bruetman Julio, Pellegrini Débora, Kremer Armando
Servicios de Clínica Médica, Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Medicina (B Aires). 2010;70(3):284-92.
The term asthenia comes from the Greek (centsqsneia, a: privation, without; esthénos: vigor, force), it means absence of strength, vigor or force. It is a symptom, difficult to define, with a set of vague sensations, different for each patient. It is a frequent cause of consult, almost 30% in ambulatory settings. The chronic fatigue represents up to 10% of these cases, and the 0.2-0.7% belongs to the chronic fatigue syndrome. It is very important to differentiate asthenia from weakness, dizziness or dyspnoea, since patients may confuse them. The factor time in asthenia is very useful for its characterization, it was defined to the prolonged fatigue when it lasts for more than a month and chronic when the duration is greater than 6 months. The depression is the commonest fatigue cause, representing approximately half of the cases. The most effective treatment of the asthenia is to solve the underlying cause, although up to 20% of the patients remain without diagnosis. The diagnosis of the chronic fatigue syndrome is of exclusion and the criteria of the international consensus of year 1994 are due to use. The high frequency of the symptom entails an enormous social and economic cost and it is for that reason so important for physicians to have a correct manage of this symptom.
“无力”一词源于希腊语（ασθενεια，α：缺失、没有；εσθενος：活力、力量），意思是缺乏力量、活力或力气。它是一种难以定义的症状，伴有一系列模糊的感觉，每个患者的感觉都有所不同。它是患者就诊的常见原因，在门诊环境中几乎占30%。慢性疲劳占这些病例的10%，其中0.2 - 0.7%属于慢性疲劳综合征。将无力与虚弱、头晕或呼吸困难区分开来非常重要，因为患者可能会将它们混淆。无力中的时间因素对其特征描述非常有用，当持续疲劳超过一个月时被定义为持续性疲劳，当持续时间超过6个月时则为慢性疲劳。抑郁症是最常见的疲劳原因，约占病例的一半。治疗无力最有效的方法是解决潜在病因，尽管高达20%的患者仍未确诊。慢性疲劳综合征的诊断是排除性的，应采用1994年国际共识标准。该症状的高发性带来了巨大的社会和经济成本，因此医生正确处理这一症状非常重要。
