Talk:Symptom

Suggestion for expansion
I'd suggest that the current version be expanded from purely a medical context to a problem-solving context. 124.171.205.184 (talk) 14:42, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Cleanup
Cleaned up a bit, article still seems sorely lacking and still very messy but for the moment I've done what I can. Too many sections are distracting, so I've combined the ones that were related. They didn't have enough information to warrant being separate anyway. See the MoS. The bold text was also inappropriate. Quotes should be used. See MoS for that too. The section on Symptoms vs. Signs was better written and more informative at the signs article. RShnike (talk) 04:01, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

Definition disputed
I don't agree with the lead-off sentence which gives this definition:

"...a departure from normal function or feeling which is noticed by a patient, indicating the presence of disease or abnormality."

My quarrel is with the part after the comma: imho a symptom does not necessarily imply disease or abnormality.

This page, claiming to derive from DSM-IV, says that a symptom "refers to an observable behavior or state" with "no implication that an underlying problem necessarily exists or that there is a physical etiology". If this holds up, the definition needs to be changed. Mathglot (talk) 06:35, 22 December 2014 (UTC)


 * Good catch, Mathglot. Dorland's defines it as any subjective evidence of disease or of a patient's condition, i.e., such evidence as perceived by the patient; a change in a patient's condition indicative of some bodily or mental state . I think that specifically medical reference works should take precedence over more generalized (common-usage) language definitions. Suggest: "...is a departure from normal function or feeling which is noticed by a personper WP:MEDMOS, reflecting an unusual state or disease." 86.181.67.166 (talk) 11:10, 11 January 2015 (UTC)


 * I would alter the ambiguous noticed by a person, as that could mean noticed by a doctor or other person, in which case by definition it is a sign and not a symptom. Mathglot (talk) 08:27, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Symptom. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080112015448/http://www.uwo.ca:80/pathol/glossary.html to http://www.uwo.ca/pathol/glossary.html#S

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 23:01, 25 January 2016 (UTC)