Invisible Illness: A History, from Hysteria to Long Covid

Long Covid is the latest illness in a line of “complex chronic conditions” that reveal the shortcomings of healthcare systems when it comes to diagnosing and treating illnesses without visible symptoms, according to this nuanced study. Medical anthropologist Mendenhall (Unmasked) points as far back as the ancient Greek hysteria diagnosis and follows its evolution to its 19th-century cousin, neurasthenia. These terms were used, alternatively and depending on the era, to misogynistically dismiss women’s pain as either irreparably rooted in their biology, and thus untreatable, or purely psychological. The legacy of these dismissive catchalls continues to rear its head today, Mendenhall argues, in the way invisible illnesses are dealt with by modern medicine: the murky definitions of conditions like functional neurological disorder and chronic fatigue syndrome act as barriers to further testing and necessary care. Mendenhall astutely notes, however, that long Covid could be a “watershed moment,” as its high rates in the population make it difficult to dismiss and suggest the possibility that many types of invisible illnesses are likewise the result of little-understood “post-viral conditions.” Mendenhall also movingly spotlights the struggles of chronically ill patients who experience maddening dismissals by their own doctors. The result is an urgent argument for updating standards of care and a hopeful look at how long Covid could prompt a major medical turning point. (Jan.)