pathoscribe

Written by Anoushka Pandya | Art by Srivalli Adarapu

The terms disorders, syndromes, and diseases are common in healthcare and may appear to have the same meaning at first glance. However, these terms have distinctions that set them apart and cannot always be used interchangeably. 

The definition of a disorder is an illness that disturbs regular physiological functions. Disorders are characterized by their ability to affect a person’s daily routine. Some possible symptoms of OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, for instance, include the fear of germs or the fear of forgetting things – These fears affect a person’s actions in their daily life. 

On the other hand, a syndrome refers to a group of symptoms that recurrently occur together. Syndromes are distinguished by their symptoms or bodily findings. For example, Turner syndrome is characterized by developmental problems relating to the loss of all or part of a female’s X chromosome. 

Diseases are a term that is difficult to fully define – A disease generally refers to a physiological or biological illness that causes harmful changes to an organism’s normal state. Even the World Health Organization does not have a specific definition for the term ‘disease.’ Diseases may even refer to symptoms or risk factors of other diseases, like high blood pressure. What is defined as a disease changes over time because of many factors – Even social, religious, and economic factors may contribute to what a disease is. For example, being homosexual was considered a disease in the past, but the APA (American Psychologist Association) removed this diagnosis in 1973.

So, what’s the difference? Syndromes differ from the other two terms, referring to symptoms that occur together. The terms disease and disorder may be harder to differentiate. They can occasionally be used interchangeably – Disorders, for one, do not have a set cause while diseases have identifiable causes. Diseases are measurable and have specific symptoms. While these terms are similar and can occasionally be used interchangeably, it is important to know that they are not the same and have crucial differences in medicine and healthcare.

Works Cited: 

Martin, Cory. “Disease vs. Disorder: What Is the Difference?” Verywell Health, Verywell Health, 13 Nov. 2023, www.verywellhealth.com/disease-vs-disorder-5092243#:~:text=The%20words%20%22disorder%22%20and%20%22,condition%20with%20an%20identifiable%20cause. 

Martin, Cory. “Disease vs. Disorder: What Is the Difference?” Verywell Health, Verywell Health, 13 Nov. 2023, www.verywellhealth.com/disease-vs-disorder-5092243. 

Calvo, Franz, et al. “Diagnoses, Syndromes, and Diseases: A Knowledge Representation Problem.” AMIA … Annual Symposium Proceedings. AMIA Symposium, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2003, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1480257/.  

Scully, Jackie Leach. “What Is a Disease?” EMBO Reports, U.S. National Library of Medicine, July 2004, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1299105/.  

Mellor, Duanne, and Shahid Merali. “What Exactly Is a Disease?” NewsGP, 31 July 2019, www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/what-exactly-is-a-disease. 

Drescher, Jack. “Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality.” Behavioral Sciences (Basel, Switzerland), U.S. National Library of Medicine, 4 Dec. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4695779/.