An iatrogenic (pronounced /aɪˌæ.trəʊ'dʒɛ.nɪk/, IPA) condition is a state of ill health or adverse effect caused by medical treatment, usually due to mistakes made in treatment. The word literally means "caused by a doctor" (iatros means physician in Greek), though such conditions can be the fault of therapists or pharmacists as well. Symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet. ... Adverse effect, in medicine, is an abnormal, harmful, undesired and/or unintended side-effect, although not necessarily unexpected, which is obtained as the result of a therapy or other medical intervention, such as drug/chemotherapy, physical therapy, surgery, medical procedure, use of a medical device, etc. ... Medicine on the Web NLM (National Library of Medicine, contains resources for patients and healthcare professionals) Virtual Hospital (digital health sciences library by the University of Iowa) Online Medical Dictionary Collection of links to free medical resources Category: Medicine ... Treatment may refer to: // Health Therapy - the act of remediation of a health problem. ... Physician examining a child The word physician should not be confused with physicist, which means a scientist in the area of physics. ...

Iatrogenic conditions can include medical errors, such as mistakes made in surgery, or the prescription or dispensing of the wrong drug. For instance, because most drug prescriptions are handwritten by the doctor, poor handwriting can lead a pharmacist to dispense the wrong drug, worsening a patient's condition. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Drug may refer to: A substance perceived or defined as a drug in clinical medical practice or a substance perceived or defined as a drug in legislation and political strategies so as to prevent or punish abuse of the substance. ...

A very common iatrogenic effect is caused by drug interaction, i.e., when physicians fail to check for all medicaments a patient is taking and prescribe new ones which interact agonistically or antagonistically (potentiate or decrease the intended therapeutic effect). Significant morbidity and mortality is caused because of this. Drug interaction is a situation in which two or more separate drugs have been absorbed into the body and their effects are affected by each other, i. ... In epidemiology, the morbidity rate is a ratio that measures the incidence and prevalence of a specific disease. ...

The evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria sometimes is called iatrogenic as well. Bacteria strains resistant to antibiotics have evolved in response to what some call the overprescription of antibiotic drugs. In some parts of the world, antibiotics are prescribed much more frequently than in others, partly because people have come to expect them to be effective and thus to demand them from doctors. The habit of some patients to discontinue an antibiotic regimen as soon as their symptoms abate -- rather than taking the full course to ensure the bacteria are wiped out -- can also accelerate bacterial evolution towards resistance. Antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to withstand the effects of an antibiotic. ... An antibiotic is a drug that kills or slows the growth of bacteria. ... The term symptom (from the Greek syn = con/plus and pipto = fall, together meaning co-exist) has two similar meanings in the context of physical and mental health: A symptom can be a physical condition which shows that one has a particular illness or disorder (see e. ... Phyla/Divisions Actinobacteria Aquificae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chlamydiae/Verrucomicrobia Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Nitrospirae Omnibacteria Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Bacteria is also the fictional name of a warring nation under Benzino Napaloni as dictator, in the 1940 film The Great Dictator...

Some have considered many of the more elaborate forms of mental illness to be iatrogenic, recently including dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder, and recovered memory syndrome. According to this belief, patients in therapy, who may initially have depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, respond to suggestion by the therapist by filling in the other expected symptoms of these disorders. This is why critics of dissociative identity disorder claim that the vast number of such case are found by just a few psychiatrists and psychologists. The Scream, the famous painting commonly thought of as depicting the experience of mental illness. ... In psychiatry, Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is the current name of the condition formerly listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) and Multiple Personality Syndrome. ... Overview In psychiatry, Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is the current name of the condition formerly listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) and Multiple Personality Syndrome. ... A false memory is a memory of an event that did not happen or is a distortion of an event that did occur as determined by externally corroborated facts. ... Clinical depression is a health condition of depression with mental and physical components reaching criteria generally accepted by clinicians. ... Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a term for the psychological consequences of exposure to or confrontation with stressful experiences, which involve actual or threatened death, serious physical injury or a threat to physical and/or psychological integrity and which the person found highly traumatic. ...

A related term is nosocomial, which refers to a illness transferred from patient to patient in the hospital. A nosocomial infection is an infection that is caused by staying in a hospital. ...

A related concept is Institutional Damage but it can occur separately from the medical acts, even in a hospital. The text below is generated by a template, which has been proposed for deletion. ...

From a sociological point of view there are three types of iatrogenesis, clinical iatrogenesis, social iatrogenesis, and cultural iatrogenesis.

See also

• Adverse effect (medicine)

Adverse effect, in medicine, is an abnormal, harmful, undesired and/or unintended side-effect, although not necessarily unexpected, which is obtained as the result of a therapy or other medical intervention, such as drug/chemotherapy, physical therapy, surgery, medical procedure, use of a medical device, etc. ...

External links

• American Iatrogenic Association
• WHO guide to good prescribing: Legal obligation to write clearly