name syndrome name

Posted on January 20th, 2009 at 8:20 am by admin

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I am fascinated by the concept of <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndrome” target=”_blank”>syndromes</a>.

A syndrome is a collection of symptoms that have been bundled together to make it convenient to talk about them. Like Asperger Syndrome.

It’s not a <em>thing</em>, really.
<blockquote>You: Doctor, I have a sore knee and a crick in my neck.

Doctor: Ah, yes. that means you have Sore Knee Crick In The Neck Syndrome.</blockquote>
<em>Syndrome</em> is just parroting back what you said. It means: “We have a great name for your set of symptoms and the patterns behind them. We assume it’s a condition, but we don’t know the cause or physiology. But now you can Google it.”

It’s basically the medical equivalent of a Gaulic shrug.