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Asthenia (Greek: ασθένεια, lit. lack of strength but also disease) is a medical term denoting symptoms of physical weakness and loss of strength.

A condition in which the body lacks or has lost strength either as a whole or in any of its parts. General asthenia occurs in many chronic wasting diseases, such as anemia and cancer, and is probably most marked in diseases of the adrenal gland. Asthenia may be limited to certain organs or systems of organs, as in asthenopia, characterized by ready fatiguability.

Asthenia is also a side effect of some medications and treatments, such as Ritonavir (a protease inhibitor used in HIV treatment), vaccines such as the HPV vaccine Gardasil^[1] and fentanyl patches (an opioid used to treat pain).

The condition is also commonly seen in patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, sleep disorders or chronic disorders of the heart, lungs or kidneys.

Differentiating between psychogenic asthenia and true asthenia with muscular weakness is often difficult, and in time apparent psychogenic asthenia accompanying many chronic disorders is seen to progress into a primary weakness.

Causes of asthenia

Cultural references

• "The Asthenic Syndrome", a film by Kira Muratova, is about a man or the whole society experiencing symptoms of asthenia.
• Blink-182 (album) has a song called "Asthenia", (about an astronaut in a space capsule contemplating whether his return to earth will even make a difference)

See also

• Neurasthenia
• Myasthenia gravis

References

• Adapted from: Hinshaw DB, Carnahan JM, Johnson DL (August 2002). "Depression, anxiety, and asthenia in advanced illness". J. Am. Coll. Surg. 195 (2): 271–7; discussion 277–8. doi:10.1016/S1072-7515(02)01191-2. PMID 12168975. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1072-7515(02)01191-2.  

1. ^ Loris McVittie, Ph.D.. "Information from CDC and FDA on the Safety of Gardasil Vaccine". June 12, 2008. Office of Vaccines Research and Review at the US FDA. http://www.fda.gov/cber/approvltr/gardasil061208L.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-21. "We have approved your supplement to your biologics license application (BLA) for Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent (Types 6, 11, 16 and 18) Vaccine, Recombinant (GARDASIL), to include arthralgia, myalgia, asthenia, fatigue, and malaise in the Adverse Reactions section of the package insert to reflect reports received during post-marketing surveillance, to include corresponding changes to the patient package insert, and to include additional minor editorial changes to the package insert."  
2. ^ Study of the prevalence of tumour-related asthenia in Spanish cancer patients, Clinical and Translational Oncology, Volume 10, Number 6 / June, 2008