Disease vs. syndrome — what’s the difference?
Why are some conditions considered a disease rather than syndrome? This has to do the with the understanding of its pathology – or the cause and mechanisms of the condition.
Syndrome is a medical condition that produces a number of signs and symptoms that often occur together, but have no identifiable cause. So a syndrome can only indicate the risk of developing a certain disease.
A syndrome is only recognized as a disease when the medical community has established a high degree of certainty about the pathology.
So a condition like metabolic syndrome, which affects a third of Americans today, has a collection of symptoms that tend to occur together and increases your chances of getting chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and liver disease.
But since metabolic syndrome has many interconnected risk factors, there are also likely numerous causes that are still not well established, therefore it’s not labeled as a disease. Though insulin resistance and obesity have been two associated causes.
Reference:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/metabolic-syndrome/basics/definition/con-20027243
http://www.protocol-online.org/biology-forums/posts/14819.html
Book:
https://books.google.ro/books?id=ZhBMqc1OYdoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=metabolic+syndrome&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAmoVChMI-Pv3zp-yyAIVxEgUCh1O0wRr#v=onepage&q=metabolic%20syndrome&f=false
Animation & info via UCSF
#medicine #metabolicsyndrome #disease
I thought disease means it's curable, while syndrome nobody has a clue what's going on.
ReplyDeleteHave there ever been any syndromes that have become diseases?
ReplyDeleteYou two have no excuses, it isn't Monday or Friday.... Perhaps your symptoms should be regarded as a social media syndrome... I wonder if the exact pathology will be identified and I can start calling you diseased? ;)
ReplyDelete(Sorry couldn't resist... lol)
edit:
Gjermund Gusland Thorsen you've of course heard the term 'incurable disease'?
Sam Collett the quoted blurb implies that disease recognition follows syndrome identification. Did you mean to ask for a specific example? AIDS (acquired immune deficiency Syndrome) and HIV infection are an example. For a couple years they were uncertain of the cause of AIDS. Just a lot of gay gentlemen getting anemic and showing lots of skin cancers. The virus remains symptomatically latent for years which helped to delay its identification. Initially when it was identified, it was understood only as a syndrome. Now it is know as a specific disease (HIV infection) and when the symptoms manifest it becomes the syndrome. I think the use of syndrome as a term tends to go away when the disease mechanism is established, unless there is something that differentiates the syndrome from the disease - as is the case with the delay of the onset of AIDS in HIV infections.
I'm thinking there must be rarer cases in which a syndrome is identified after the disease... Probably with a disease that can have two or more symptomatically distinct prognoses. Can't think of any though... I'm probably being dumb and there are obvious ones.
ReplyDeleteSyndrome is also a villain in the Incredibles. ☺
ReplyDeleteThat film is nearly 11 years old. Where does the time go?
ReplyDeleteIncredibles II is in the works!!! Can't wait!
ReplyDelete