Da Costa's syndrome
| Da Costa's syndrome | |
|---|---|
| Classification and external resources | |
| ICD-10 | F45.3 |
| ICD-9-CM | 306.2 |
Da Costa's syndrome, which was colloquially known as soldier's heart, is a syndrome with a set of symptoms that are similar to those of heart disease, though a physical examination does not reveal any physiological abnormalities. In modern times, Da Costa's syndrome is considered the manifestation of an anxiety disorder, and treatment is primarily behavioral, involving modifications to lifestyle and exercise.
The condition was named after Jacob Mendes Da Costa, who investigated and described the disorder during the American Civil War. It is also variously known as cardiac neurosis, chronic asthenia, effort syndrome, functional cardiovascular disease, neurocirculatory asthenia, primary neurasthenia, subacute asthenia and irritable heart.
The World Health Organization classifies this condition as a somatoform autonomic dysfunction (a type of psychosomatic disorder) in their ICD-10 coding system. In their ICD-9 system, it was classified under non-psychotic mental disorders. The syndrome is also frequently interpreted as one of a number of imprecisely characterized "postwar syndromes".
There are many names for the syndrome, which has variously been called cardiac neurosis, chronic asthenia, effort syndrome, functional cardiovascular disease, neurocirculatory asthenia, primary neurasthenia, and subacute asthenia. Da Costa himself called it irritable heart and the term soldier's heart was in common use both before and after his paper. Most authors use these terms interchangeably, but some authors draw a distinction between the different manifestations of this condition, preferring to use different labels to highlight the predominance of psychiatric or non-psychiatric complaints. For example, Oglesby Paul writes that "Not all patients with neurocirculatory asthenia have a cardiac neurosis, and not all patients with cardiac neurosis have neurocirculatory asthenia." None of these terms have widespread use.
...
Wikipedia