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], from 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. Ecologically, disease is defined as or abnormality. A symptom is subjective,[2] observed by the patient,[3] and not measured.[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"
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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 systemic arterial blood pressure 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).
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] especially schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness characterized by a disintegration of the process of thinking 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 typically occurs in, 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 is, a fixed belief that is either false, fanciful, or derived from deception. The psychiatric definition of delusion is similarly, a belief that is pathological and is held despite evidence to the contrary.} As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, dogma, stupidity, apperception, illusion,, 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 in conscious vision 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 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
- Category:Symptoms Categories: Medical diagnosis | Diseases and disorders
- List of medical symptoms Medical symptoms are complaints which indicate disease. They are noticed by the patient and cause people to go and see a health practitioner. It is rare that a person would visit a doctor and complain as follows: "Doctor, I have amaurosis fugax." They are more likely to complain of loss of vision. This list is not exhaustive but might be
- Pathogenesis The term pathogenesis means step by step development of a disease and the chain of events leading to that disease due to a series of changes in the structure and /or function of a cell/tissue/organ being caused by a microbial, chemical or physical agent. The pathogenesis of a disease is the mechanism by which a disease is caused. The term can also
- Symptomatic treatment Symptomatic treatment is any medical therapy of a disease that only affects its symptoms, not its cause, i.e., its etiology. It is usually aimed at reducing the signs and symptoms for the comfort and well-being of the patient, but it also may be useful in reducing organic consequences and sequelae of these signs and symptoms of the disease. In
- Medical 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
Wed, 11 Aug 2010 07:01:52 GMT+00:00
Los Angeles Times But the truth is, the eye-popping salaries, platinum pensions and lavish perks accorded Rizzo and his colleagues are merely symptoms , not the disease. ...
