Rearuh

A syndrome is a set of medical signs and symptoms that are correlated with each other and, often, with a particular disease or disorder.^[1] The word derives from the Greek σύνδρομον, meaning "concurrence".^[2] In some instances, a syndrome is so closely linked with a pathogenesis or cause that the words syndrome, disease, and disorder end up being used interchangeably for them. This is especially true of inherited syndromes. For example, Down syndrome, Wolf–Hirschhorn syndrome, and Andersen syndrome are disorders with known pathogeneses, so each is more than just a set of signs and symptoms, despite the syndrome nomenclature. In other instances, a syndrome is not specific to only one disease. For example, toxic shock syndrome can be caused by various toxins; premotor syndrome can be caused by various brain lesions; and premenstrual syndrome is not a disease but simply a set of symptoms.

If an underlying genetic cause is suspected but not known, a condition may be referred to as a genetic association (often just "association" in context). By definition, an association indicates that the collection of signs and symptoms occurs in combination more frequently than would be likely by chance alone.^[3]

Syndromes are often named after the physician or group of physicians that discovered them or initially described the full clinical picture. Such eponymous syndrome names are examples of medical eponyms. Recently, there has been a shift towards naming conditions descriptively (by symptoms or underlying cause) rather than eponymously, but the eponymous syndrome names often persist in common usage.

Usage

General medicine

In medicine a broad definition of syndrome is used, which describes a collection of symptoms and findings without necessarily tying them to a single identifiable pathogenesis. The more specific definition employed in medical genetics describes a subset of all medical syndromes.

Psychiatry and psychopathology

Psychiatric syndromes often called psychopathological syndromes (psychopathology is a psychic dysfunction occurring in mental disorder, also it's the study of the origin, diagnosis, development, and treatment of mental disorders).

In Russia those psychopathological syndromes are used in modern clinical practice and described in psychiatric literature in the details: asthenic syndrome, obsessive syndrome, emotional syndromes (for example, manic syndrome, depressive syndrome), Cotard's syndrome, catatonic syndrome, hebephrenic syndrome, delusional and hallucinatory syndromes (for example, paranoid syndrome, paranoid-hallucinatory syndrome, Kandinsky-Clérambault's syndrome also known as syndrome of psychic automatism, hallucinosis), paraphrenic syndrome, psychopathic syndromes (includes all personality disorders), clouding of consciousness syndromes (for example, twilight clouding of consciousness, amential syndrome also known as amentia, delirious syndrome, stunned consciousness syndrome, oneiroid syndrome), hysteric syndrome, neurotic syndrome, Korsakoff's syndrome, hypochondriacal syndrome, paranoiac syndrome, senestopathic syndrome, encephalopathic syndrome.^[4][5]

There are some examples of the psychopathological syndromes used in modern Germany: psychoorganic syndrome, depressive syndrome, paranoid-hallucinatory syndrome, obsessive-compulsive syndrome, autonomic syndrome, hostility syndrome, manic syndrome, apathy syndrome.^[6]

Münchausen syndrome, Ganser syndrome, neuroleptic-induced deficit syndrome, olfactory reference syndrome are also well known.

History

The most important psychopathological syndromes were divided by severity by German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin (1856—1926) into three groups. The first group, which included the mild disorders, includes five syndromes: emotional, paranoid, hysterical, delirious, impulsive.^[7] The second intermediate group includes two syndromes: schizophrenic syndrome and speech-hallucinatory syndrome.^[7] The third group includes the most severe disorders.^[7] The third group includes three syndromes: epileptic, oligophrenic and dementia.^[7] Epilepsy in these times has been viewed as a mental illness. Karl Jaspers is considered the "genuine epilepsy" to be a "psychosis" too.^[8] He describes "the three major psychoses": schizophrenia, epilepsy, and manic-depressive illness.^[8]

Medical genetics

In the field of medical genetics, the term "syndrome" is traditionally only used when the underlying genetic cause is known. Thus, Trisomy 21 is commonly known as Down syndrome.

Until 2005, CHARGE syndrome was most frequently referred to as "CHARGE association". When the major causative gene (CHD7) for the condition was discovered, the name was changed.^[9] The consensus underlying cause of VACTERL association has not been determined, and thus it is not commonly referred to as a "syndrome".^[10]

Other fields

In biology, "syndrome" is used in a more general sense to describe characteristic sets of features in various contexts. Examples include behavioral syndromes, as well as pollination syndromes and seed dispersal syndromes.

Naming

There is no set common convention for the naming of newly identified syndromes. In the past, syndromes were often named after the physician or scientist who identified and described the condition in an initial publication, these are referred to as "eponymous syndromes". In some cases, diseases are named after the patient who initially presents with symptoms,^[11] or their home town (Stockholm syndrome). There have been isolated cases of patients being eager to have their syndromes named after them, while their physicians are hesitant.^[12] When a syndrome is named after a person, there is some difference of opinion as to whether it should take the possessive form or not (Down syndrome vs. Down's syndrome). North American usage has tended to favor the non-possessive form, while European references often use the possessive.^[13] Even in Europe, there has been a trend away from the possessive form, over the period between 1970 and 2008.^[13]

History

Avicenna, in The Canon of Medicine (published 1025), pioneered the idea of a syndrome in the diagnosis of specific diseases.^[14] The concept of a medical syndrome was further developed in the 17th century by Thomas Sydenham.^[15]

Underlying cause

Even in syndromes with no known etiology, the presence of the associated symptoms with a statistically improbable correlation, normally leads the researchers to hypothesize that there exists an unknown underlying cause for all the described symptoms.

See also

• List of syndromes


• Toxidrome


• Symptom

References

External links

Look up syndrome in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• 
  Whonamedit.com - a repository of medical eponyms