functional disease

American  

noun

Pathology.

1. a disease in which there is an abnormal change in the function of an organ, but no structural alteration in the tissues involved (opposed to organic disease).

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functional disease British  

noun

1. a disease in which there is no observable change in the structure of an organ or part Compare organic disease

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Etymology

Origin of functional disease

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

By organic disease is meant one that causes serious, perhaps permanent deterioration of the tissues of the body; by functional disease is meant one due to a perverted action of approximately normal organs.

From McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 4, August 1908 by Various

By functional disease there is expressed merely that no anatomical or chemical change is discoverable in the material which gives the unusual reaction.

From Disease and Its Causes by Councilman, William Thomas

Pruritus is a functional disease of the skin, the sole symptom of which is itching, there being no structural change.

From Essentials of Diseases of the Skin Including the Syphilodermata Arranged in the Form of Questions and Answers Prepared Especially for Students of Medicine by Stelwagon, Henry Weightman

The author         has cured what is termed organic disease as readily as she 149:24 has cured purely functional disease, and with no power         but the divine Mind.

From Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures by Eddy, Mary Baker

We recognized that every so-called functional disease has its organic basis too, and that it is entirely secondary whether we are able to find visible traces of the organic disturbance.

From Psychotherapy by Münsterberg, Hugo