involutional

[ in-vuh-loo-shuh-nl ]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of involutional melancholia:

   involutional symptoms.

noun

1. a person with involutional melancholia.

Word History and Origins

Origin of involutional¹

First recorded in 1905–10; involution + -al ¹

Example Sentences

The states of imperfect nutrition, resultant from nerve strains on gland function, in this way and in others, interfere with the proper evolution of puberty and the involutional changes at the “change of life,” which occurs in both sexes.

From Project Gutenberg

The foremost cause among the middle-aged for first admissions to mental institutions is listed with the diagnosis "involutional psychosis," sometimes called "change-of-life melancholia."

From Time Magazine Archive

Secretary of Defense James Forrestal committed suicide in 1949 while hospitalized for involutional melancholia.

From Time Magazine Archive

More astonishing than the play were the players : housewives and secretaries suffering from involutional melancholia or agitated schizophrenia, mechanics or plumbers in manic-depressive states.

From Time Magazine Archive

Electric shock is in a way a "punitive" treatment, Dr. Bailey suggested, and should be limited to the involutional anxious melancholic, a type of case in which it is sometimes spectacularly effective.

From Time Magazine Archive