decompensation

[ dee-kom-puhn-sey-shuhn ]

noun
  1. Medicine/Medical. the inability of a diseased heart to compensate for its defect.

  2. Psychology. a loss of ability to maintain normal or appropriate psychological defenses, sometimes resulting in depression, anxiety, or delusions.

Origin of decompensation

1
First recorded in 1900–05; de- + compensation

Words Nearby decompensation

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use decompensation in a sentence

  • It might be possible with this instrument to foretell an oncoming decompensation by the rise in venous pressure.

    Arteriosclerosis and Hypertension: | Louis Marshall Warfield

British Dictionary definitions for decompensation

decompensation

/ (diːˌkɒmpɛnˈseɪʃən) /


noun
  1. pathol inability of an organ, esp the heart, to maintain its function due to overload caused by a disease

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012