adj.
Of, relating to, or designating a disease having no known cause.
idiopathically id'i·o·path'i·cal·ly adv.
idiopathic
Dictionary:
id·i·o·path·ic (ĭd'ē-ə-păth'ĭk, ĭd'ē-ō-)  |
| Dental Dictionary: idiopathic |
(id″e-o-path'ik)
adj
adj
Without apparent cause; of unknown origin.
| Sports Science and Medicine: idiopathic |
Applied to a disease or condition the cause of which is not known.
| Veterinary Dictionary: idiopathic |
Self-originated; occurring without known cause.
- i. adrenocortical atrophy — see primary hypoadrenocorticism.
- i. disease — without known cause.
- i. hemorrhagic syndrome — see canine ehrlichiosis.
- i. peripheral vestibular disease — see canine idiopathic vestibular syndrome, feline ischemic encephalopathy.
- i. polyneuritis — see guillain–barré syndrome.
- i. thrombocytopenia — see immune-mediated thrombocytopenia.
| Obscure Words: idiopathic |
| Wikipedia: Idiopathic |
Idiopathic is an adjective used primarily in medicine meaning arising spontaneously or from an obscure or unknown cause. From Greek ἴδιος, idios (one's own) + πάθος, pathos (suffering), it means approximately "a disease of its own kind."
It is technically a term from nosology, the classification of disease. For most medical conditions, one or more causes are somewhat understood, but in a certain percentage of people with the condition, the cause may not be readily apparent or characterized. In these cases, the origin of the condition is said to be "idiopathic."
With some medical conditions, the medical community cannot establish a root cause for a large percentage of all cases (e.g. Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, the majority of which are idiopathic);[1] with other conditions, however, idiopathic cases account for a small percentage (e.g., pulmonary fibrosis).[2] As medical and scientific advances are made with relation to a particular condition or disease, more root causes are discovered, and the percentage of cases designated as idiopathic shrinks.
In his book The Human Body, Isaac Asimov noted a comment about the term "idiopathic" made in the 20th edition of Stedman's Medical Dictionary: "A high-flown term to conceal ignorance."[3] Similarly, in the American television show House, the title character remarks that the word "comes from the Latin, meaning 'we're idiots, because we don't know what's causing it.'"
The German pediatrician Stephan Heinrich Nolte (*1955) coined the term "idiopathic medicine" in 1993 to describe an attitude in medicine which realises and accepts the fatefulness of health and disease in both its somatic and psychosocial circumstances and linkages thus delimiting empathetic attending and counselling from activity-oriented just doing things for doing something ("therapeutic actionism")[4].
See also
References
- ^ Daskalakis N, Winn M (2006). "Focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis". Cell Mol Life Sci 63 (21): 2506–11. doi:. PMID 16952054.
- ^ "Medical Encyclopedia: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis". MedlinePlus. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000069.htm. Retrieved 2007-02-13.
- ^ Asimov, Isaac (1963). The Human Body: Its Structure and Operation.. Houghton Mifflin. pp. 179. ISBN 0-395-07350-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=wn0hAAAAMAAJ&q=asimov+A+high-flown+term+to&dq=asimov+A+high-flown+term+to&ei=Of5sSdORFoa4NqT86OgN&pgis=1.
- ^ Nolte S.H.: Idiopathische Medizin: Empathische Begleitung und Beratung statt therapeutischem Aktionismus. Dt. Ärztebl. 90 (1993)A1 2614-2616
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Dental Dictionary. Mosby's Dental Dictionary. Copyright © 2004 by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Sports Science and Medicine. The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine. Copyright © Michael Kent 1998, 2006, 2007. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Obscure Words. © 2008 by Michael A. Fischer http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Idiopathic". Read more |
