In medicine and psychology, the term syndrome refers to the association of several clinically recognizable features, signs (discovered by a physician), 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. Medicine is the art and science of healing It encompasses a range of Health care practices evolved to maintain and restore Human Health by the Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and A Sign is an indication of some fact or quality and a medical sign is an objective indication of some medical fact or quality that is detected by a Physician A symptom' (from Greek σύμπτωμα, "accident misfortune that which befalls" from συμπίπτω, "I befall" from A physician, medical practitioner or medical doctor who practices Medicine, and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human Health In recent decades the term has been used outside of medicine to refer to a combination of phenomena seen in association.
In technical medical language, a "syndrome" refers only to the set of detectable characteristics. A specific disease, condition, or disorder may be identified as the underlying cause. A disease is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions and can be deadly Once a physical cause has been identified, the word "syndrome" is sometimes kept in the name of the disease.
The term syndrome derives from the Greek and means literally "run together", as the features do. It is most often used when the reason that the features occur together (the pathophysiology of the syndrome) has not yet been discovered. Pathophysiology is the study of the disturbance of normal Mechanical, Physical, and Biochemical functions either caused by a Disease, or resulting A familiar syndrome name often continues to be used even after an underlying cause has been found, or when there are a number of different primary causes that all give rise to the same combination of symptoms and signs. Many syndromes are named after the physicians credited with first reporting the association; these are "eponymous" syndromes (see also the list of eponymous diseases, many of which are referred to as "syndromes"). An eponymous Disease is one that has been named after the person who first described the condition Otherwise, disease features or presumed causes, as well as references to geography, history or poetry, can lend their names to syndromes. Geography (from Greek γεωγραφία - geografia) is the study of the Earth and its lands features inhabitants and phenomena History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology
A culture-bound syndrome is a set of symptoms where there is no evidence of an underlying biological cause, and which is only recognized as a "disease" in a particular culture. In Medicine and Medical anthropology, a culture-specific syndrome or culture-bound syndrome is a combination of psychiatric and somatic Symptoms
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Syndromes and associated conditions
The description of a syndrome usually includes a number of essential characteristics, which when concurrent lead to the diagnosis of the condition. Frequently these are classified as a combination of typical major symptoms and signs - essential to the diagnosis - together with minor findings, some or all of which may be absent. A formal description may specify the minimum number of major and minor findings respectively, that are required for the diagnosis.
In contrast to the major and minor findings which are typical of the syndrome, there may be an association with other conditions, meaning that in persons with the specified syndrome these associated conditions occur more frequently than would be expected by chance. While the syndrome and the associated conditions may be statistically related, they do not have a clear cause and effect relationship - i. e. there is likely to be a separate underlying problem or risk factor that explains the association. A risk factor is a variable associated with an increased risk of Disease or Infection. An example would be Down syndrome which has the associated condition of diabetes mellitus. Down syndrome, Down's syndrome, or trisomy 21 is a Chromosomal disorder caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. Diabetes mellitus (ˌdaɪəˈbiːtiːz or /ˌdaɪəˈbiːtəs/ /məˈlaɪtəs/ or /ˈmɛlətəs/ often referred to simply as diabetes ( Ancient Greek: grc A knowledge of associated conditions would dictate that they are specifically looked for in the management of the syndrome.
Case studies
One recent case study is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), so named because most syndromal immune deficiencies are either genetically precoded, or secondary to either metabolic disorders or hematological disease. Metabolism is the set of Chemical reactions that occur in living Organisms in order to maintain Life. Hematology ( American English) or haematology ( British English) is the branch of biology (physiology Pathology, Clinical laboratory
AIDS was originally termed "Gay Related Immune Disease" (or GRID), a name which was revised as the disease turned out to also affect heterosexuals. Gay-related immune deficiency ( GRID) (sometimes informally called the gay plague or GRIDS) was an alternative name for AIDS, proposed in 1982 Several years passed after the recognition of AIDS before HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) was first described, finally explaining the hitherto mysterious "syndrome". Human immunodeficiency virus ( HIV) is a Lentivirus (a member of the Retrovirus family that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) is an even more recent example of a syndrome that was later explained with the identification of a causative coronavirus. Coronavirus is a genus of animal Virus belonging to the family Coronaviridae.
See also
- Category:Syndromes lists articles about specific medical syndromes.
- Toxidrome
- Withdrawal syndrome
- Child development
External links
- Whonamedit.com - a repository of medical eponyms
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