alexpgp | Interesting fact from yesterday...

I found a reference for the document I translated yesterday (said reference being Differences in Patterns of Mood States among Russian and American Space Station Crews, by Ritsher, et al.). The article's principal benefit was that it provided a third-party verification for "mental asthenization" as a translation of a term that played a central role in my document, "психическая астенизация").

What I found interesting, however, was the following:

The syndrome that Russian cosmonauts are watched for, “psikhicheskaya astenizatsiya” (mental asthenization), is considered a mild, reversible form of neurasthenia. Neurasthenia is considered a bona fide clinical syndrome in Russia, China and Europe, but it is viewed with great skepticism in America and does not appear in the American DSM-IV diagnostic system. Similarly, there is debate in Russia about whether American psychiatric models are accurate for Russians.

I am not surprised to learn that clinical syndromes differ among countries (because I knew that), but it's nice to have this data point in my "intellectual stockpile" for future discussions.

Cheers...