3 ms·

seems like a debate about semantics. Why can't the answer be a multi-variate model in which disease like factors get a weight and non-disease like factors get

seems like a debate about semantics. Why can't the answer be a multi-variate model in which disease like factors get a weight and non-disease like factors get some kind of a weight? What's the point arguing about these non continuous binary options?

funkdobiest 10y ago
That's the way I have always heard it framed,as what is your definition of disease?
posterboy 10y ago
> semantics here we go dis-ease: not being easy, uncomfortable, sickness > (pathology) An abnormal condition of a human, animal or plant that causes discomfort or dysfunction; distinct from injury insofar as the latter is usually instantaneously acquired. There is no debate to be had at all. I get where this comes from, the scientific definition is more involved, but then addiction is just a symptom, while the damage, eg. to the nervous system, is material. Would ignorance count as disease?
ktRolster 10y ago
>seems like a debate about semantics. The article specifically addresses that point: a slim majority of the panelists, including Murphy, did not want to emphasize the word "disease," because it implies that chemical dependence is primarily a function of pathology, when in fact environmental factors (dysfunction at home, stress at work), learned behavioral patterns (binge drinking, for instance), and economic disparities have been shown to play a significant causal role. Clearly, the debate was not just semantic.
- posterboy 10y ago
  environmental factors (e.g. bad air), learned behavioral patterns (hygiene) and economic disparities (to afford a doctor) all play a role in the course of a lung infection, even leading to death, too. I don't think it isn't a prime example of a disease.
  - vasilipupkin 10y ago
    understood. But what matters to me when I am in the hospital with a lung infection is how to treat it so that it goes away, not what it's called

funkdobiest 10y ago

That's the way I have always heard it framed,as what is your definition of disease?

posterboy 10y ago

> semantics here we go dis-ease: not being easy, uncomfortable, sickness > (pathology) An abnormal condition of a human, animal or plant that causes discomfort or dysfunction; distinct from injury insofar as the latter is usually instantaneously acquired. There is no debate to be had at all. I get where this comes from, the scientific definition is more involved, but then addiction is just a symptom, while the damage, eg. to the nervous system, is material. Would ignorance count as disease?

ktRolster 10y ago

>seems like a debate about semantics. The article specifically addresses that point: a slim majority of the panelists, including Murphy, did not want to emphasize the word "disease," because it implies that chemical dependence is primarily a function of pathology, when in fact environmental factors (dysfunction at home, stress at work), learned behavioral patterns (binge drinking, for instance), and economic disparities have been shown to play a significant causal role. Clearly, the debate was not just semantic.

posterboy 10y ago
environmental factors (e.g. bad air), learned behavioral patterns (hygiene) and economic disparities (to afford a doctor) all play a role in the course of a lung infection, even leading to death, too. I don't think it isn't a prime example of a disease.
- vasilipupkin 10y ago
  understood. But what matters to me when I am in the hospital with a lung infection is how to treat it so that it goes away, not what it's called