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CLASSIFICATION OF DISEASE
By peace | September 4, 2006
Duration
Diseases may be classified by their duration as acute or chronic. Acute disease is a temporary disturbance of homeostasis. Chronic disease may establish a new level of homeostasis.
Moral Criteria
Diseases may also be classified by cause as diseases of the heart and diseases of the body. Diseases of the heart lead directly or indirectly to somatic diseases.
Physical cause
Disease can also be classified by physical cause: infectious (viral, bacterial, fungal, protozoal, or helminthic), neoplastic, allergic, genetic, congenital, nutritional, environmental, mental, degenerative, metabolic, circulatory, or hormonal. The inflammatory process is a reaction to the original disease pathology in both its acute and chronic forms and is essentially a defensive measure. It is sometimes also harmful to the body on its own. Most disease processes are actually attempts by the body to repair damage.
Site
Disease can also be classified as local or systemic. Fever is a systemic condition whereas a local wound is a local condition. However local conditions become systemic with time and systemic conditions may have particular effects on some local tissues.
Mental cause
Disease can be classified as physical or mental. This classification is not valid all the time because in many instances mental conditions have a physical or biochemical basis. Mental disorders are either neuroses (anxiety, phobia, hysteria, obsessive-compulsive disorders, or depression) or psychoses. Psychoses are more serious than neuroses. Psychoses normally require drug treatment whereas the preferred management for neuroses is psychotherapy. Psychoses can be organic (types of epilepsy) or functional. The functional psychoses are either affective disorders (manic-depressive disorders, endogenous depression, reactive depression) or schizophrenia. Schizophrenia involves disorders of thought, emotions, will, body movements, delusions, and hallucinations. It is noteworthy that schizophrenia has the same prevalence all over the world.
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