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A disease or medical condition is an abnormality of the body or mind that causes discomfort, dysfunction, distress, or death to the person afflicted or those in contact with the person. Sometimes the term is used broadly to include injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function, while in other contexts these may be considered distinguishable categories. In the narrow sense, a disease is the invasion of the body by pathogens.

Pathology is the study of diseases. The subject of systematic classification of diseases is referred to as nosology. The broader body of knowledge about human diseases and their treatments is medicine. Many similar (and a few of the same) conditions or processes can affect non-human animals (wild or domestic). The study of diseases affecting animals is veterinary medicine.

Illness, Syndromes, and Disease

Medical usage sometimes distinguishes a disease, which has a known specific cause or causes (called its etiology), from a syndrome, which is a collection of signs or symptoms that occur together. However, many conditions have been identified, yet continue to be referred to as "syndromes." Furthermore, numerous conditions of unknown etiology are referred to as "diseases" in many contexts.

Illness, although often used to mean disease, can also refer to a person's perception of their health, regardless of whether they in fact have a disease. A person without any disease may feel unhealthy and simply have the perception of having an an illness. Another person may feel healthy with similar percpetions of perfectly good health. The individual's perception of good health may even persist with the medical diagnosis of having a disease; for example, such as dangerously high blood pressure, which may lead to a fatal heart attack or stroke.

Disease can be thought of as the presence of pathology, which can occur with or without subjective feelings of being unwell or social recognition of that state. Illness as the subjective state of "unwellness" can occur independently of, or in conjunction with, disease or sickness (with sickness the social classification of someone deemed diseased, which can also occur independently of the presence or absence of disease or illness (c.f. subjective medical conditions). So someone with undetected high blood pressure who feels to be of good health would be diseased, but not ill or sick. Someone with a diagnosis of late-stage cancer would be diseased, probably feeling quite ill, and recognized by others as sick. A person incarcerated in a totalitarian psychiatric hospital for political purposes could arguably be then said to not be diseased, nor ill, but only classified as sick by the rulers of a society with which the person did not agree. Having had a bad day after a night of excess drinking, one might feel ill, but she would not be diseased, nor is it likely that a boss could be convinced of the sickness.

Sickness confers the social legitimization of certain benefits, such as illness benefits, work avoidance and being looked after by others. In return, there is an obligation on the sick person to seek treatment and work to become well once more. As a comparison, consider pregnancy, which is not a state interpreted as disease or sickness by the individual. On the other hand, it is considered by the medical community as a condition requiring medical care and by society at large as a condition requiring your staying at home from work.

Social Significance of Disease

The identification of a condition as a disease, rather than as simply a variation of human structure or function, can have significant social or economic implications. The controversial recognitions as diseases of post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as "Soldier's heart," "shell shock," and "combat fatigue;" repetitive motion injury or repetitive stress injury (RSI); and Gulf War syndrome has had a number of positive and negative effects on the financial and other responsibilities of governments, corporations and institutions towards individuals, as well as on the individuals themselves. The social implication of viewing aging as a disease could be profound, though this classification is not yet widespread.

A condition may be considered to be a disease in some cultures or eras but not in others. Oppositional-defiant disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and, increasingly, obesity, are conditions considered to be diseases in the United States and Canada today, but were not so-considered decades ago and are not so-considered in some other countries. Lepers were a group of afflicted individuals who were historically shunned and the term "leper" still evokes social stigma. Fear of disease can still be a widespread social phenomena, though not all diseases evoke extreme social stigma.

A disease can also be caused by repeated high anger or stress. a disease can also cause stress and eventually death.

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