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

See Examples For:

functional disease

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

The further our researches into the nature of disease extend, particularly the researches into the physiology and chemistry of disease, the smaller is the area of functional disease.

From Disease and Its Causes by William Thomas Councilman

New Thought declares that all diseases, except accidental wounds and fractures begin in the psychic or "thought body" as energy and then are registered in the physical cells as organic or functional disease.

From Freedom Talks No. II by Julia Seton M.D.

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 Hugo Münsterberg

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 William Thomas Councilman