organic disease

American  

noun

Pathology.

1. a disease in which there is a structural alteration (opposed to functional disease).

---

organic disease British  

noun

1. any disease in which there is a physical change in the structure of an organ or part Compare functional disease

---

Etymology

Origin of organic disease

First recorded in 1835–45

Example Sentences

Policy makers are so convinced that children with attention deficits have an organic disease that they have all but called off the search for a comprehensive understanding of the condition.

From New York Times • Jan. 28, 2012

Yes — and the idea that you feel like you’re a different person is a symptom of the particular organic disease, which I discovered.

From Time • Oct. 18, 2011

Yet her psychiatrist did not know she had an organic disease.

From Time • Oct. 18, 2011

Even the low figure, says Ford, means that $20 billion a year in medical care is spent on people with no organic disease.

From Time Magazine Archive

Appetite, as we have emphasized in the chapter on Appetite, is largely a matter of will, and anything that is eaten, provided it stays down, will do good unless there is organic disease.

From Psychotherapy by Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)