decompensation
Americannoun
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Medicine/Medical. the inability of a diseased heart to compensate for its defect.
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Psychology. a loss of ability to maintain normal or appropriate psychological defenses, sometimes resulting in depression, anxiety, or delusions.
noun
Etymology
Origin of decompensation
First recorded in 1900–05; de- + compensation
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Medical science now knows that many people living with long-term conditions such as heart, lung and liver diseases are tipped into decompensation and death by the coronavirus.
From Washington Post • Jan. 19, 2023
This experience taught me that my son’s medical care for schizophrenic decompensation is not a priority call.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 4, 2022
“But what we’re ultimately worried about is heart decompensation and dangerous arrhythmias.”
From Scientific American • Dec. 2, 2021
As a result, the source said, the patient was “undergoing a quiet decompensation where he just gets sicker and sicker.”
From The New Yorker • May 2, 2016
Digitalis, when the cardiac tone is low and decompensation is present.
From Arteriosclerosis and Hypertension: with Chapters on Blood Pressure, 3rd Edition. by Warfield, Louis Marshall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
