Vapours (disease)

Vapours (disease)

The term referring to illnesses known as the vapours (or vapors) is an archaic form for certain mental or physical states, such as hysteria, mania, clinical depression, bipolar disorder, fainting, withdrawal syndrome, mood swings or PMS, ascribed primarily to women and thought to be caused by internal emanations. This is related to the similar term female hysteria. Vapors were considered to be the female equivalent to melancholy found in men.

The word vapors was used to describe a depressed or hysterical nervous condition. The term is no longer used.