Talk:Syndrome

Definition

Deletions and changes: Not just symptoms, which are the things a patient complains of. Not a fixed pattern, as expression can be quite variable for many syndromes. I know, I'm being pedantic, but an encyclopedia is the place for it. Alteripse 08:34, 28 May 2004 (UTC)

Asperger's Syndrome (AS)

I just removed all this text on Asperger syndrome. I can't tell if it advertisng spam for the school, but it has no place in a article that simply explains what the word syndrome means. The author is welcome to copy and insert it in the article on Asperger syndrome and persuade the other editors interested in that article that it belongs. Perhaps the advertising copy about the school could be deleted first.alteripse 04:24, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Asperger's syndrome is a condition where young children experience impaired social interactions and develop limited repetitive patterns of behavior. Motor milestones may be delayed and clumsiness is often observed.

Alternative Names Pervasive developmental disorder

Causes, incidence, and risk factors

Hans Asperger labeled this disorder "Autistic Psychopathy" in 1944, and the cause is still unknown. There is a possible relation to autistic disorder (autism). Some researchers believe that Asperger's sydrome is simply a mild form of autism.

The child with Asperger's shows below-average nonverbal communication gestures, fails to develop peer relationships, has an inability to express pleasure in other people's happiness, and lacks the ability to reciprocate emotionally in normal social interactions. The condition appears to be more common in boys. There are likely genetic factors, but some theories suggest a prenatal infection may be to blame.

While people with Asperger's syndrome are frequently socially inept, many have above average intelligence and they may excel in fields like computer programming and science.

Symptoms

Abnormal nonverbal communication, such as problems with eye contact, facial expressions, body postures, or gestures. Failure to develop peer relationships. Scapegoating by other children as "weird" or "strange". Lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people). Markedly impaired expression of pleasure in other people's happiness. Inability to return social or emotional feelings. Inflexible about changes in specific routines or rituals. Repetitive finger flapping, twisting, or whole body movements. Preoccupation with restricted areas of interest (unusually narrow or unusually intense). Some examples are obsession with train schedules, phone books, stamp collecting, or other collections of objects. Preoccupation with parts of whole objects. Repetitive behaviors, including repetitive self-injurious behavior. There is no general delay in language. There is no delay in cognitive development, or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills or in curiosity about the environment

The Springstone school

The Springstone School is an independent secondary school that promotes and develops academic, social and prevocational skills for students with Asperger's Syndrome and Nonverbal Learning Disabilities. The Springstone School fosters values of independence, responsibility and community in preparation for high school and beyond through intensive, individualized instruction in small structured classrooms.The Springstone School is located in Lafayette, CA.

The Springstone School is a community for learners - a community for those who strive to improve themselves both academically and socially. Challenges are seen as learning opportunities and all members of the community will be accepted and celebrated for their differences and strengths.

Examples

Good, I removed all the examples. Firstly, they served no direct purpose. Secondly, every anonIP was adding his own favourite syndrome to the list. Thirdly, it selected for nothing. I could concede for actual examples (e.g. the non-eponymous list), but the rest is staying out. JFW | T@lk 21:35, 14 August 2005 (UTC)

• I think that several selected examples of syndromes will help readers to understand this topic, because the the general can be deducted from the specific. Snowman (talk) 23:03, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Association vs syndrome

This article needs to mention clearly the commonly confused terms syndrome and association. May I suggest that someone clarify these two different medical terms so as to reduce the ambiguity of the article.

Use of syndrome name. Associated conditions as above.

Got here when I noticed that the "syndrome" part of Serotonin syndrome did not link to this entry. Added the bit that where more than one cause is eventually found, the use of the syndrome name as a label for the concurrent symptoms remains appropriate, since it efficiently narrows the diagnostic search to those known causes of the syndromic disorder. Added the link to the list of eponymous diseases, since most eponymous syndrome names are found there. I am unsure about the request for "syndrome vs association", but have added in a bit about what I think was asked. I see that there is no article yet explaining the idea of an associated condition , though the term appears in multiple medical articles. --Seejyb 23:38, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

More complete list

It would be useful to have a list of syndromes in the technical sense - sets of symptoms which have not yet been explained with a biological cause. -- Beland 21:01, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

No, because the list is potentially endless. That is why I removed "withdrawal syndromes", because they are no more syndromes that any others (toxic shock syndrome, Down's syndrome). One exception is the term "toxidrome", because it derives from a merger of toxin and [syn]drome. JFW | T@lk 19:42, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

I think that examples will benefit the article. Snowman (talk) 23:04, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Misuse of sources

Jagged 85 (talk · contribs) is one of the main contributors to Wikipedia (over 67,000 edits; he's ranked 198 in the number of edits), and practically all of his edits have to do with Islamic science, technology and philosophy. This editor has persistently misused sources here over several years. This editor's contributions are always well provided with citations, but examination of these sources often reveals either a blatant misrepresentation of those sources or a selective interpretation, going beyond any reasonable interpretation of the authors' intent. Please see: Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Jagged 85. The damage is so extensive that it is undermining Wikipedia's credibility as a source. I searched the page history, and found one edit by Jagged 85 in October 2009. Tobby72 (talk) 17:49, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

The definition seems confusing

In the first paragraph is the statement, "Specific syndromes tend to have a range of possible etiologies or diseases that could create such a set of circumstances." I don't believe this is correct: most specific syndromes have a single aetiology (eg a genetic defect, an infectious agent, etc). A specific syndrome is a group of phenomena (symptoms, signs, etc) that generally signify a single common aetiology.

The plurality implied by the term "syndrome" is in the signifiers, not the signified. Although the term is sometimes used refer to a group of phenomena with multiple aetiologies, this is not inherent to the term.

The example given ("there is an important distinction between Parkinson's disease and a Parkinsonian syndrome, whereby the latter could be caused by the former, but also by other conditions such as a progressive supranuclear palsy or multiple system atrophy.") is confusing. As it is it suggests that the word "disease" implies a singularity while "syndrome" implies a plurality of aetiologies. In fact in this case the plurality is given by the adjective "Parkinsonian" which is a more generalised descriptor than than the specific "Parkinson's" (disease).

For example, one area where the definition is very likely to cause confusion is with the disease Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The word "syndrome" in this case refers to the multiplicity of presenting signs and opportunistic infections which signify the single immune system disease AIDS, not to a multiplicity of possible ultimate causes.

I'd suggest deleting the last two sentences of the first paragraph. Thoughts?On A Leash (talk) 00:57, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

I don't know how far we want to take this: There's no single etiology for the common cold syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivity, etc. I've tried to clarify that section. Perhaps that will work, or perhaps you'll want to try to improve it yourself. WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:47, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

I've simplified the introduction to emphasise that something called a "syndrome" may have a single cause, multiple causes, or may be of unknown cause(s). I think that as it was, it implied that the term necessarily indicated multiple causes rather than multiple signifiers. On A Leash (talk) 20:37, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

I've tried to build on that by stating it more directly and in the simplest English words I could think of. Does that work for you? WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:46, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, that looks good to me.On A Leash (talk) 21:43, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Limelight

A scientist I once knew spoke of 'some of these, or all of these, in varying degrees'.

I had wanted to do an article but did not quite have the time to study the guidelines for a once-off thing. So I'll put that to you here, for your serious consideration and/or today's entertainment. It's one of those things that are half serious:

LIMELIGHT DEPRIVATION SYNDROME

Limelight deprivation syndrome is a colloquial term, not used in academic psychology, wich is used for people who have once held positions of importance that took them into the limelight of the media where they gave interviews. They could call the media and then explain their ideas and suggestions. The media picked them up to be showcased, although implementation of the ideas was not a given.

The individuals internalised a feeling that they were important and had something to say. When they then no longer had that position, regardless of whether having lost an election, resigning from the post voluntarily or maybe driven out by opponents or an inappriate action - they lost their relevance in public life. Instead of understanding that a chapter in their life closed, they continue as if they still had a position of relevance. They comment on current affairs, give their successors advice or simply develop good suggestions and advice from the outside for which they seek media attention.

Limelight deprivation syndrome can strike in phases, i.e. it may come and go away and come back. It also applies to people who had been successful in the arts once.

This is only a definition which abstains from naming examples. If this contribution survives 'the censors', one can name a person or two. There is, to my knowledge, no source for this syndrome. I cannot even remember if I read it somewhere in a satirical context or if I made it up. 144.136.192.55 (talk) 04:08, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

• There are examples of this use of "syndrome" in the Literature and some are featured in the OED under "syndrome". Snowman (talk) 23:07, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Non-genetic syndromes

Conditions such as ... Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome are examples of non-genetic syndromes.

I could not find a source for this statement. I did not look for anything about Toxic Shock Syndrome. 96.26.79.253 (talk) 14:10, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

but what is a condition?

A syndrome is a condition, the article states, but what's a condition?

The word condition is used in the definition in the first sentence of the lede:

A syndrome, in medicine and psychology, is the collection of signs and symptoms that are observed in, and characteristic of, a single condition.

and condition is then used repeatedly in the lede, as well as a few times in the article body, without ever being explained or hyperlinked.

On the disambig page condition the 17th entry is "Medical condition, as a synonym for disease" and Medical condition is a redirect to disease.

If that's what is meant in the lede, let's either substitute a hyperlinked "medical condition" for condition (at least in the first occurrence) or just change it to disease and link that, or use an appositive to link them. Mathglot (talk) 10:13, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

Mathglot The word "condition" is highly abstract, but I agree that it needs defining. There are medical conditions that are asymptomatic, so they can't even be considered a "disease" or "illness". wikt:condition has a number of definitions. It is similar to "situation" and "state". JFW | T@lk 20:06, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, JFW. Had a look at wikt:condition but it barely touches on anything resembling a medical condition, and as you pointed out, "situation" and "state" are pretty vague here, at least if we're trying to define a syndrome. I found this page which gives a hierarchy of: symptom, syndrome, disorder, disease going from least to most restrictive as far as etiology. Not sure how well-accepted this list is, but at least it defines things in a way I can understand and seems logical. The site claims to take these definitions from DSM-IV, and if that holds up and applies equally well to general medicine as well, maybe we could recast the first sentence. (Btw, the entries for Symptom and Disorder have their own, related issues.) Mathglot (talk) 06:53, 22 December 2014 (UTC)

Mathglot Go ahead and make some changes. I would prefer a stronger source if at all possible, but I agree that this might be difficult to find. JFW | T@lk 08:48, 22 December 2014 (UTC)

JFW Laying some groundwork: currently adding a new Definition section to Mental disorder, which lacked one (except for an unsourced statement in the lede) and providing a strong source there ([DSM-IV]]). Will hopefully come back here and fix this up as well. Mathglot (talk) 09:54, 22 December 2014 (UTC)