In archaic usage, the vapours (or vapors) is a reference to the treatment of certain mental or physical states, such as hysteria, mania, clinical depression, bipolar disorder, lightheadedness, fainting, flush, withdrawal syndrome, mood swings, or PMS, where a sufferer lost mental focus. Ascribed primarily to women and thought to be caused by internal emanations, it was related to the concept of female hysteria. Vapours were used as a treatment for conditions considered to be the female equivalent to melancholy found in men.