A symptom is a departure from normal function or feeling which is noticed by a patient,
indicating the presence of disease or abnormality. A symptom is subjective, observed by the patient,
and cannot be measured directly, whereas a sign is objectively observable. For example,
paresthesia is a symptom, whereas erythema is a sign. Symptoms and signs are often nonspecific,
but often combinations of them are at least suggestive of certain diagnoses, helping to
narrow down what may be wrong. In other cases they are specific even to the point of being
pathognomonic. The term is sometimes also applied to physiological
states outside the context of disease, as for example when referring to "symptoms of
pregnancy".
Types Symptoms may be chronic, relapsing or remitting.
Asymptomatic conditions also exist. Constitutional or general symptoms are those
related to the systemic effects of a disease. They affect the entire body rather than a
specific organ or location. The terms "chief complaint", "presenting symptom",
"iatrotropic symptom", or "presenting complaint" are used to describe the initial concern which
brings a patient to a doctor. The symptom that ultimately leads to a diagnosis is called
a "cardinal symptom". Non-specific symptoms are self-reported symptoms
that do not indicate a specific disease process or involve an isolated body system. For example,
fatigue is a feature of many acute and chronic medical conditions, whether physical or mental,
and may be either a primary or secondary symptom. Fatigue is also a normal, healthy condition
when experienced after exertion or at the end of a day.
Positive and negative In describing mental disorders, especially
schizophrenia, symptoms can be divided into positive and negative symptoms.
Positive symptoms are symptoms present in the disorder but not normally experienced
by most individuals. It reflects an excess or distortion of normal functions (i.e., experiences
and behaviours that have been added to a person’s normal way of functioning. Examples are hallucinations,
delusions, and bizarre behavior. Negative symptoms are functions that are normally
found in healthy persons, but that are diminished or not present in affected persons. Thus,
it is something that has disappeared from a person’s normal way of functioning. Examples
are social withdrawal, apathy, inability to experience pleasure and defects in attention
control. 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 in one
eye has a significantly smaller number of possible causes than nausea does.
Some symptoms can be misleading to the patient or the medical practitioner caring for them.
For example, inflammation of the gallbladder 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. Symptom versus Sign
A symptom can more simply be defined as any feature which is noticed by the patient. A
sign 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 a sign or a symptom - or
both - depending on the observer(s). For example, a skin rash 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 measured in a medical laboratory.
See also Category:Symptoms
List of medical symptoms Pathogenesis
Symptomatic treatment References
^ "Sumptoma, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', at Pursues".
Perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2011-12-17. ^ Pathology - Glossary
^ eMedicine/Stedman Medical Dictionary Lookup! ^ Devroede G. "Constipation—a sign of a
disease to be treated surgically, or a symptom to be deciphered as nonverbal communication?".
J. Clin. Gastroenterol. 15: 189–91. doi:10.1097/00004836-199210000-00003. PMID 1479160.
^ a b "Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders: positive symptom". Minddisorders.com. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
^ a b http:www.minddisorders.comNegative-symptoms.html Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders: negative
symptom ^ "Mental Health: a Report from the Surgeon
General". Surgeongeneral.gov. Retrieved 2011-12-17. ^ a b Understanding Psychosis, Mental Health
Illness of Australia.