Nursing/Health Sciences: Reference Diseases and Disorders

Disease caused by infection with various strains of the bacillus Vibrio cholerae, transmitted in contaminated water and characterized by violent diarrhoea and vomiting. It is prevalent in many tropical areas.

Inflammation of the intestine characterized by the frequent passage of feces, usually with blood and mucus.

Inflammation of the liver. There are many types of hepatitis. Causes include viruses, toxic chemicals, alcohol consumption, parasites and bacteria, and certain drugs.

Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) leads to a progressive destruction of the human immune system.

Influenza or flu, acute, highly contagious disease caused by a virus; formerly known as the grippe. There are three types of the virus, designated A, B, and C, but only types A and B cause more serious contagious infections.

A parasitic disease caused by four species of PLASMODIUM: P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae.

Inflammation of the meninges (membranes) surrounding the brain, caused by bacterial or viral infection. Bacterial meningitis, though treatable by antibiotics, is the more serious threat. Diagnosis is by lumbar puncture.

Polio, or infantile paralysis, acute viral infection, mainly of children but also affecting older persons.

Acute infection of one or both lungs that can be caused by a bacterium, usually Streptococcus pneumoniae (also called pneumococcus; see streptococcus), or by a virus, fungus, or other organism.

Sexually transmitted disease (STD) or venereal disease, term for infections acquired mainly through sexual contact.

Acute, highly contagious disease causing a high fever and successive stages of severe skin eruptions. The disease dates from the time of ancient Egypt or before.

Tuberculosis results form infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The lungs are the site most often affected, but most organs in the body can be involved in tuberculosis.

Whooping cough or pertussis, highly communicable infectious disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis.

Acute infectious disease endemic in tropical Africa and many areas of South America.

Disease characterized by impaired control over the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Lack of desire to eat, or refusal to eat, especially the pathological condition of anorexia nervosa, most often found in adolescent girls and young women.

Anxiety is an unpleasant affect accompanied by a myriad of physiologic manifestations (quickened heart beat, gastrointestinal distress, ‘butterflies’ and diarrhoea, a tightening in the chest, tremulousness, sweating, muscle tension) as well as psychological manifestations (a sense of dread and impending danger, of helplessness, of insecurity and uncertainty).

Autism, a condition of neurodevelopment, is more common in males, with onset typically in infancy. It is diagnosed when a child or adult has abnormalities in a ‘triad’ of behavioral domains: social development, communication, and repetitive behavior / obsessive interests.

Any of several psychological disorders of mood characterized usually by alternating episodes of depression and mania — called also manic depression, manic-depressive illness.

Disorder best defined as a collection of psychological symptoms including sadness; unhappy thoughts characterized by worry, poor self-image, self-blame, guilt and low self-confidence; downbeat views on the future; and a feeling of hopelessness.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) has been one of the most controversial diagnostic categories in the history of psychiatry.

A chronic disorder of cerebral function characterized by periodic convulsive seizures.

In psychology, a disorder commonly known today as conversion disorder, in which a psychological conflict is converted into a bodily disturbance.

In psychiatry, a broad category of psychological disturbance, encompassing various mild forms of mental disorder.

Obsessive compulsive disorder is defined in the DSM-IV as the presence of either obsessions or compulsions (or both). Obsessions are defined as recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses or images that are experienced as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress.

(PTSD), mental disorder that follows an occurrence of extreme psychological stress, such as that encountered in war or resulting from violence, childhood abuse, sexual abuse, or serious accident.

In psychiatry, a broad category of mental disorder encompassing the most serious emotional disturbances, often rendering the individual incapable of staying in contact with reality.

Group of severe mental disorders characterized by reality distortions resulting in unusual thought patterns and behaviors.

From the Encyclopedia of Special Education
Tourette syndrome is a child-onset neurological disorder characterized by involuntary movements or vocalizations, otherwise known as tics, and occurs in approximately .04 to .4 percent of the population.

AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a chronic, life-threatening disease that is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Common manifestation of dementia , thought to afflict 1 in 20 people over 65.

Condition in which the concentration of hemoglobin in the circulating blood is below normal.

Condition characterized by chest pain that occurs when the muscles of the heart receive an insufficient supply of oxygen. This results when the arteries that supply the heart muscle with oxygenated blood are narrowed by arteriosclerosis.

General term for a condition characterized by thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of the blood vessels.

Chronic condition characterized by difficulty in breathing due to spasm of the bronchi (air passages) in the lungs.

Partial or complete loss of sight. Blindness may be caused by injury, by lesions of the brain or optic nerve, by disease of the cornea or retina, by pathological changes originating in systemic disorders (e.g., diabetes) and by cataract, glaucoma, or retinal detachment.

Group of diseases characterized by abnormal proliferation of cells.

Any of several abnormalities of the heart and its function in maintaining blood circulation.

Degeneration of tissue in an organ resulting in fibrosis, with nodule and scar formation.

Visual defect resulting in the inability to distinguish colors. About 8% of men and 0.5% of women experience some difficulty in color perception.

condition that results when the coronary arteries are narrowed or occluded, most commonly by atherosclerotic deposits of fibrous and fatty tissue.

Diabetes mellitus, often referred to simply as diabetes, is not a single disease but a group of metabolic disorders characterized by hyperglycemia (elevated blood glucose) resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both.

Abnormal accumulation of fluid in the body tissues or in the body cavities causing swelling or distention of the affected parts.

Pathological or physiological enlargement or overdistention of the air sacs of the lungs. A major cause of pulmonary insufficiency in chronic cigarette smokers, emphysema is a progressive disease that commonly occurs in conjunction with chronic bronchitis.

Ocular disorder characterized by pressure within the eyeball caused by an excessive amount of aqueous humor (the fluid substance filling the eyeball).

The term for high BLOOD PRESSURE (raised pressure of the circulating blood).

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system characterized by recurring episodes of neurological disturbance.

Condition resulting from excessive storage of fat in the body.

A disease, most commonly of post-menopausal women, in which the bones become porous, brittle and liable to fracture, owing to the loss of calcium from the bone substance.

A form of arthritis, particularly common in women, that causes pain, swelling, stiffness and deformity of the joints, especially of the fingers, wrists, ankles, feet or hips.