Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsHow Symptoms Lead to a DiagnosisWhat Is a Disease?What Is a Disorder?What Is a Syndrome?What Is a Condition?
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
How Symptoms Lead to a Diagnosis
What Is a Disease?
What Is a Disorder?
What Is a Syndrome?
What Is a Condition?
“Disease,” “disorder,” “condition,” and “syndrome"seem like interchangeable terms, but they all refer to specific health states. Determining which of these is affecting your health always begins with an analysis of your symptoms.
When you have a disease, you typically have a specific issue that your healthcare provider can diagnose. A disorder is a disruption in the normal functions of your body, the cause of which can be unknown and subjective.
This article delves into exactly what makes a health concern a disease, disorder, syndrome, or condition.
A medical diagnosis follows a particular hierarchy, beginning with an analysis of your symptoms. Symptoms are the first things we notice that indicate there might be a problem.
In most cases — especially for common conditions — the disease can be identified quickly. For people with rare conditions, however, receiving a diagnosis of a disease can sometimes take years.
You may have clusters of symptoms that make it clear you have an autoimmune disorder, for example, but no concrete diagnosis. During the time it takes to receive the proper diagnosis, your condition, or how you feel on a daily basis, could vary.
Disease vs. Illness
A disease is a pathological process that healthcare providers are able to see, touch, and measure.Diseases have particular signs and symptoms. When diagnosing autoimmune diseases, healthcare providers will look for specific symptoms and clinical findings.
For example, rheumatoid arthritis mostly affects the joints, causing pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of function. The disease can also cause fatigue, fevers, and loss of appetite.
Disease vs. Disorder
A disorder might indicate that a specific disease is possible but there is not enough clinical evidence for diagnosis. It may be clear you have an autoimmune disorder of some sort, but it may take time to receive a specific diagnosis like RA.
A syndrome is a group of symptoms that tend to occur together.With autoimmune conditions, symptoms vary depending on the body systems or organs involved.
A systemic autoimmune condition affects the entire body. For example, in systemiclupus erythematosus(SLE) orlupus, any organ of the body can be affected such as the heart, skin, brain, and kidneys. Knowing the specific symptoms or syndrome can help a healthcare provider diagnose the responsible disease.
Syndrome vs. DiseaseSyndromes are groups of symptoms associated with a disease. Knowing the syndrome can help diagnose the disease.
Syndrome vs. Disease
Syndromes are groups of symptoms associated with a disease. Knowing the syndrome can help diagnose the disease.
A condition indicates your state of health. It is an abnormal state that feels different from your normal state of well-being. Often, you’ll hear about someone’s condition when they are hospitalized and noted as being in stable or critical condition.
How an Organic Disease Differs From a Functional Disorder
Summary
The words “disorder” and “disease” are sometimes used interchangeably, but there are clear differences between them. A disorder is a group of symptoms that disrupts your normal body functions but does not have a known cause, while a disease is a medical condition with an identifiable cause.
These terms are further distinct from “syndrome,” which simply describes a constellation of symptoms that tend to occur together.
A condition is a more generalized term used to describe an abnormal state of health.
6 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Komatsu N, Takayanagi H.Mechanisms of joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis - immune cell-fibroblast-bone interactions.Nat Rev Rheumatol. 2022;18(7):415-429. doi:10.1038/s41584-022-00793-5Isono M, Kokado M, Kato K.Why does it take so long for rare disease patients to get an accurate diagnosis?-A qualitative investigation of patient experiences of hereditary angioedema.PLoS One. 2022;17(3):e0265847. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0265847National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.Autoimmune diseases.Tiwari S, Talreja S.Do you think disease and disorder are same?–here is the comparative review to brash up your knowledge.J Pharm Sci Res. 2020;12(4):462-8.National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.Rheumatoid arthritis.Peterson D, Keeley JW.Syndrome, disorder, and disease.The Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology.2015. doi:10.1002/9781118625392.wbecp154
6 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Komatsu N, Takayanagi H.Mechanisms of joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis - immune cell-fibroblast-bone interactions.Nat Rev Rheumatol. 2022;18(7):415-429. doi:10.1038/s41584-022-00793-5Isono M, Kokado M, Kato K.Why does it take so long for rare disease patients to get an accurate diagnosis?-A qualitative investigation of patient experiences of hereditary angioedema.PLoS One. 2022;17(3):e0265847. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0265847National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.Autoimmune diseases.Tiwari S, Talreja S.Do you think disease and disorder are same?–here is the comparative review to brash up your knowledge.J Pharm Sci Res. 2020;12(4):462-8.National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.Rheumatoid arthritis.Peterson D, Keeley JW.Syndrome, disorder, and disease.The Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology.2015. doi:10.1002/9781118625392.wbecp154
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Komatsu N, Takayanagi H.Mechanisms of joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis - immune cell-fibroblast-bone interactions.Nat Rev Rheumatol. 2022;18(7):415-429. doi:10.1038/s41584-022-00793-5Isono M, Kokado M, Kato K.Why does it take so long for rare disease patients to get an accurate diagnosis?-A qualitative investigation of patient experiences of hereditary angioedema.PLoS One. 2022;17(3):e0265847. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0265847National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.Autoimmune diseases.Tiwari S, Talreja S.Do you think disease and disorder are same?–here is the comparative review to brash up your knowledge.J Pharm Sci Res. 2020;12(4):462-8.National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.Rheumatoid arthritis.Peterson D, Keeley JW.Syndrome, disorder, and disease.The Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology.2015. doi:10.1002/9781118625392.wbecp154
Komatsu N, Takayanagi H.Mechanisms of joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis - immune cell-fibroblast-bone interactions.Nat Rev Rheumatol. 2022;18(7):415-429. doi:10.1038/s41584-022-00793-5
Isono M, Kokado M, Kato K.Why does it take so long for rare disease patients to get an accurate diagnosis?-A qualitative investigation of patient experiences of hereditary angioedema.PLoS One. 2022;17(3):e0265847. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0265847
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.Autoimmune diseases.
Tiwari S, Talreja S.Do you think disease and disorder are same?–here is the comparative review to brash up your knowledge.J Pharm Sci Res. 2020;12(4):462-8.
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.Rheumatoid arthritis.
Peterson D, Keeley JW.Syndrome, disorder, and disease.The Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology.2015. doi:10.1002/9781118625392.wbecp154
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