A symptom (from Greek Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical ancient Greek literature and the New Testament of σύμπτωμα , "accident, misfortune, that which befalls"[1] συμπίπτω , "I befall", from συν- "together, with" + πίπτω , "I fall") is a departure from normal function or feeling which is noticed by a patient A patient is any person who receives medical attention, care, or treatment. The person is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician or other health care professional, although one who is visiting a physician for a routine check-up may also be viewed as a patient , indicating the presence of disease A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal disfunctions, such as autoimmune diseases or abnormality. A symptom is subjective,[2] [3] [4]
A symptom may not be a malady, for example symptoms of pregnancy Pregnancy is the carrying of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, inside the womb of a female. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets. Human pregnancy is the most studied of all mammalian pregnancies. Childbirth usually occurs about 38 weeks after conception; i.e., approximately 40 weeks . One could debate, however, that this is an example of common misuse of a word, as the majority of symptoms and the history of the word are related to malady. The proper word for such situations would be "indication" or "suggestion" or simply "sign"
Types
Symptoms may be chronic In medicine, a chronic disease is a disease that is long-lasting or recurrent. The term chronic describes the course of the disease, or its rate of onset and development. A chronic course is distinguished from a recurrent course; recurrent diseases relapse repeatedly, with periods of remission in between. As an adjective, chronic can refer to a , relapsing A relapse occurs when a person is affected again by a condition that affected them in the past. This could be a medical or psychological condition such as depression, an eating disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, multiple sclerosis, cancer or an addiction to a drug or remitting A cure is the end of a medical condition. The term may refer specifically to a substance or procedure that ends the medical condition, such as a medication, a surgical operation, a change in lifestyle, or even a philosophical mindset that helps a person suffer. It may also refer to the state of being healed, or cured . They also may progressively worsen or progressively become better (convalescence Convalescence is the gradual recovery of health and strength after illness. It refers to the later stage of an infectious disease or illness when the patient recovers and returns to normal, but may continue to be a source of infection even if feeling better. In this sense, "recovery" can be considered a synonymous term ). Conditions may also be classified as symptomatic (present and demonstrating symptoms) or asymptomatic (present but without symptoms). Asymptomatic conditions In medicine, a disease is asymptomatic if a patient carries a disease or infection but experiences no symptoms. A condition might be asymptomatic if it fails to show the noticeable symptoms with which it is usually associated. Asymptomatic infections are also called subclinical infections. The term clinically silent is also used and asymptomatic infections A subclinical infection is the asymptomatic carrying of an (infection) by an individual of an agent (microbe, intestinal parasite, or virus) that usually is a pathogen causing illness, at least in some individuals. Many pathogens spread by being silently carried in this way by some of their host population. Such infections occur both in humans and can exist for many years undiagnosed and may only be found upon medical testing (such as high blood pressure Hypertension or high blood pressure is a chronic medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is elevated. It is the opposite of hypotension. It is classified as either primary (essential) or secondary. About 90-95% of cases are termed "primary hypertension", which refers to high blood pressure for which no medical cause ).
Constitutional or general symptoms are those that are related to the systemic effects of a disease (e.g., fever, malaise, anorexia, weight loss). They affect the entire body rather than a specific organ or location.
The terms "chief complaint", "presenting symptom", or "presenting complaint" are used to describe the initial concern which brings a patient to a doctor A physician—also known as doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor—practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury. This properly requires both a detailed knowledge of the academic disciplines underlying . The symptom that ultimately leads to a diagnosis Diagnosis (plural diagnoses) is the identification of the nature of anything, either by process of elimination or other analytical methods. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with slightly different implementations on the application of logic and experience to determine the cause and effect relationships. Below are given as examples is called a "cardinal symptom".
Non-specific symptoms are those self-reported symptoms that do not indicate a specific disease process or involve an isolated body system. For example, fatigue Fatigue is a state of awareness. It can describe a range of afflictions, varying from a general state of lethargy to a specific work-induced burning sensation within one's muscles. It can be both physical and mental. Physical fatigue is the inability to continue functioning at the level of one's normal abilities. It is ubiquitous in everyday life, is a feature of an enormous number of medical conditions, and is a documented feature of both acute and chronic medical conditions, both physical and mental disorders, and as both a primary and secondary symptom. Fatigue is also a normal, healthy condition when experienced after exertion or at the end of a day.
Positive and negative symptoms
In describing mental disorders A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern associated with distress or disability that occurs in an individual and is not a part of normal development or culture. The recognition and understanding of mental health conditions has changed over time and across cultures, and there are still variations in the ,[5] [6] schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness characterized by a disintegration of the process of thinking, of contact with reality, and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking with significant social or occupational dysfunction. Onset of , symptoms can be divided into positive and negative symptoms.[7]
Positive symptoms are symptoms that most individuals do not normally experience but are present in the disorder. Examples are hallucinations A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid, substantial, and located in external objective space. The , delusions A delusion, in everyday language, is a fixed belief that is either false, fanciful, or derived from deception. Psychiatry defines the term more specifically as a belief that is pathological . As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, dogma, stupidity, apperception, illusion, or other effects of , and bizarre behavior.[5]
Negative symptoms are symptoms that are not present or that are diminished in the affected persons but are normally found in healthy persons. Examples are social withdrawal, apathy Apathy is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest or concern to emotional, social, or physical life. They may also exhibit an insensibility or sluggishness. The opposite of apathy is flow. In positive psychology, apathy is , inability to experience pleasure In psychology and psychiatry, anhedonia is an inability to experience pleasurable emotions from normally pleasurable life events such as eating, exercise, social interaction or sexual activities and defects in attention control.[6]
Possible causes
Some symptoms occur in a wide range of disease processes, whereas other symptoms are fairly specific for a narrow range of illnesses. For example, a sudden loss of sight Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors in one eye Eyes are organs that detect light, and convert it to electro-chemical impulses in neurons. The simplest photoreceptors connect light to movement . In higher organisms complex neural pathways exist that connect the eye, via the optic nerve to the visual cortex and other areas of the brain. Complex optical systems with resolving power have come in has a significantly smaller number of possible causes than nausea Nausea , is a sensation of unease and discomfort in the upper stomach with an urge to vomit. An attack of nausea is known as a qualm does.
Some symptoms can be misleading to the patient or the medical practitioner caring for them. For example, inflammation of the gallbladder Cholecystitis is often caused by cholelithiasis , with choleliths most commonly blocking the cystic duct directly. This leads to inspissation (thickening) of bile, bile stasis, and secondary infection by gut organisms, predominantly E. coli and Bacteroides species often gives rise to pain in the right shoulder, which may understandably lead the patient to attribute the pain to a non-abdominal cause such as muscle strain A strain is an injury to a muscle or tendon in which the muscle fibers tear as a result of overstretching. Strains are also colloquially known as pulled muscles. The equivalent injury to a ligament is a sprain .
Symptom versus sign
A symptom can more simply be defined as any feature which is noticed by the patient. A sign A medical sign is an objective indication of some medical fact or characteristic that may be detected by a physician during a physical examination of a patient is noticed by other people. It is not necessarily the nature of the sign or symptom which defines it, but who observes it.
A feature might be sign or a symptom, or both, depending on the observer(s). For example, a skin rash A rash is a change of the skin which affects its color, appearance or texture. A rash may be localized in one part of the body, or affect all the skin. Rashes may cause the skin to change color, itch, become warm, bumpy, dry, cracked or blistered, swell and may be painful. The causes, and therefore treatments for rashes, vary widely. Diagnosis may be noticed by either a healthcare professional as a sign, or by the patient as a symptom. When it is noticed by both, then the feature is both a sign and a symptom.
Some features, such as pain, can only be symptoms, because they cannot be directly observed by other people. Other features can only be signs, such as a blood cell count A complete blood count , also known as full blood count (FBC) or full blood exam (FBE) or blood panel, is a test requested by a doctor or other medical professional that gives information about the cells in a patient's blood. A scientist or lab technician performs the requested testing and provides the requesting medical professional with the measured in a medical laboratory A medical laboratory or clinical laboratory is a laboratory where tests are done on clinical specimens in order to get information about the health of a patient as pertaining to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease .
See also
References
^ Sumptoma, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon , at Pursues ^ Pathology - Glossary ^ eMedicine/Stedman Medical Dictionary Lookup! ^ J. Clin. Gastroenterol. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins is an academic and professional medical publisher, founded in 1792 and now a part of the Wolters Kluwer group. It publishes textbooks, various electronic media, and over 275 journals and newsletters in the health-care field. Publications are aimed at physicians, nurses, clinicians, and students. LWW has its 15 (3): 189–91. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata :10.1097/00004836-199210000-00003 . PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 1479160 . ^ a b Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders: positive symptom
^ a b http://www.minddisorders.com/Kau-Nu/Negative-symptoms.html Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders: negative symptom
^ Mental Health: a Report from the Surgeon General
Pathology In medicine, pathology is the study and diagnosis of disease. The related scientific study of disease processes is called "general pathology". Medical pathology is divided into two main branches, anatomical pathology and clinical pathology. Medical pathologists work through examination of organs, tissues, bodily fluids, and whole bodies : Medical conditions and ICD code
(Disease A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal disfunctions, such as autoimmune diseases / Disorder / Illness Illness is a state of poor health. Illness is sometimes considered a synonym for disease. Others maintain that fine distinctions exist. Some have described illness as the subjective perception by a patient of an objectively defined disease , Syndrome In medicine and psychology, a syndrome is the association of several clinically recognizable features, signs , symptoms (reported by the patient), phenomena or characteristics that often occur together, so that the presence of one feature alerts the physician to the presence of the others. In recent decades, the term has been used outside medicine / Sequence It differs from a syndrome in that seriality is more predictable: if A causes B, and B causes C, and C causes D, then D would not be seen if C is not seen. However, in less formal contexts, the term "syndrome" is sometimes used instead of sequence , Symptom / Sign A medical sign is an objective indication of some medical fact or characteristic that may be detected by a physician during a physical examination of a patient , Injury Injury is damage or harm caused to the structure or function of the body caused by an outside agent or force, which may be physical or chemical, and either by accident or intentional. Personal Injury also refers to damage caused to the reputation of another rather than physical harm to the body. A severe and life-threatening injury is referred to , etc.)
(A/B A, bacitracin susceptible: S. pyogenes , 001-139 A, bacitracin susceptible: S. pyogenes )
Infectious disease An infectious disease is a clinically evident illness resulting from the presence of pathogenic microbial agents, including pathogenic viruses, pathogenic bacteria, fungi, protozoa, multicellular parasites, and aberrant proteins known as prions. These pathogens are able to cause disease in animals and/or plants. Infectious pathologies are also /Infection An infection is the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. In an infection, the infecting organism seeks to utilize the host's resources to multiply, usually at the expense of the host. The infecting organism, or pathogen, interferes with the normal functioning of the host and can lead to chronic wounds, gangrene, loss : Bacterial disease Pathogenic bacteria are bacteria that cause infectious diseases. This article deals with human pathogenic bacteria (G+ It is very important to recognize that this class is defined morphologically , and not histologically (by a purple appearance when stained), though the two usually coincide , G- ) · Virus disease · Parasitic disease (Protozoan infection , Helminthiasis , Ectoparasitic infestation ) · Mycosis · Zoonosis
(C/D,
140-239 & 280-289)
(E , 240-278 )
Endocrine disease · Nutrition disorder · Inborn error of metabolism
(F , 290-319 )
Mental disorder
(G , 320-359 )
Nervous system disease (CNS , PNS ) · Neuromuscular disease
(H , 360-389 )
Eye disease · Ear disease
(I , 390-459 )
Cardiovascular disease (Heart disease , Vascular disease )
(J , 460-519 )
Respiratory disease (Obstructive lung disease , Restrictive lung disease , Pneumonia )
(K , 520-579 )
Stomatognathic disease (Tooth disease ) · Digestive disease (Esophageal , Stomach , Enteropathy , Liver , Pancreatic )
(L , 680-709 )
Skin disease · skin appendages Nail disease , Hair disease , Sweat gland disease )
(M , 710-739 )
Musculoskeletal disorders : Myopathy · Arthropathy · Osteochondropathy (Osteopathy , Chondropathy )
(N , 580-629 )
Urologic disease (Nephropathy , Urinary bladder disease ) · Male genital disease · Breast disease · Female genital disease
(O , 630-679 )
Complications of pregnancy · Obstetric labor complication · Puerperal disorder
(P , 760-779 )
Fetal disease
(Q , 740-759 )
Congenital disorder (Congenital abnormality )
(R , 780-799 )
Syndromes · Medical signs (Eponymous )
(S/T , 800-999 )
Bone fracture · Joint dislocation · Sprain · Strain · Subluxation · Head injury · Chest trauma · Poisoning
Symptoms and signs : circulatory (R00-R03 , 785 )
Cardiovascular
Myeloid /blood
: VAS
(a:,,,,,v:,,,,)//
///, /
, drug(,,,)
Symptoms and signs : skin and subcutaneous tissue (R20-R23 , 782 )
Disturbances of skin sensation/
somatosensory disorder
Hypoesthesia · Paresthesia (Formication ) · Hyperesthesia
Hypoalgesia · Hyperalgesia
Circulation
Cyanosis · Pallor /Livedo (Livedo reticularis ) · Flushing · Petechia
Edema
Peripheral edema · Anasarca
Other
Rash · Desquamation · Induration · Diaphoresis
: INT , SF , LCT
//
noco(,,,,,,,,,)//tumr(,,), /
, drug (////)
Symptoms and signs : nervous and musculoskeletal systems (R25-R29 , 781.0, 781.2-9 )
Primarily nervous system
Primarily CNS
Primarily PNS
Primarily muscular
Primarily skeletal
Rachitic rosary · Clubbing
Primarily joint
Joint locking
: CNS
(,,,,,,,,,,,)///
(,,,,,)//,/,
,drug (////////)
: PNS
(, , , , , , )//
///, /,
, drug()
: MUS , DF +DRCT
(/, , /, /, )//
noco(, , )/()/, /,
, drug (/)
: BON /CAR
(///, , /, )//
//, /,
, drug()
: JNT
(/, , , )/
noco(///)/, /,
, drug()
Symptoms and signs : cognition , perception , emotional state and behaviour (R40-R46 , 780.0-780.5,781.1 )
Cognition
Emotional state
Anxiety · Irritability · Hostility · Suicidal ideation
Behavior
Verbosity
Perception /
sensation
disorder
Olfaction : Anosmia · Hyposmia · Dysosmia · Parosmia · Hyperosmia
Taste : Ageusia · Hypogeusia · Dysgeusia · Parageusia · Hypergeusia
Hallucination : Auditory hallucination
: PSO /PSI
(, , , , , , ), /,
, drug(/////)
Symptoms and signs : Speech and voice / Symptoms involving head and neck (R47-R49 , 784 )
Aphasia /Dysphasia
Expressive aphasia · Receptive aphasia · Conduction aphasia
Other speech disturbances
Dysarthria · Schizophasia · Aprosodia /Dysprosody
Thought disorder : Pressure of speech · Derailment · Clanging · Circumstantiality
Symbolic dysfunctions
Dyslexia /Alexia · Agnosia (Prosopagnosia , Astereognosis , Gerstmann syndrome ) · Dyspraxia /Apraxia (Ideomotor apraxia ) · Dyscalculia /Acalculia · Agraphia
Voice disturbances
Dysphonia /Aphonia
Other
Epistaxis · Headache · Post-nasal drip
: PSO /PSI
(, , , , , , ), /,
, drug(/////)
Categories: Medical terms | Symptoms | Greek loanwords
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