5 ms·
This is basically the case in much of medicine. Pain is not observable. It's reported. Loss of vision or hearing isn't observable, it's reported. You can run
by light_hue_1 4y ago
This is basically the case in much of medicine.
Pain is not observable. It's reported. Loss of vision or hearing isn't observable, it's reported.
You can run tests to get an idea of whether any of these are happening. But you are not observing any of these symptoms. You're observing behavior and inferring what kinds of symptoms the person is experiencing and what degree.
- rhino369 4y agoBut is a runny nose (observable) not a symptom of a cold? Is fever not a symptom of Covid? If that's how medicine actually uses the term, okay, sometimes terms of art clash with the plain meaning, but damn that is a pretty weird distinction, as a layman.
- llbeansandrice 4y agoIn the US those would be "signs", not symptoms. Symptoms are things like pain, fatigue, etc. Signs are observable. I think other countries/languages often use "subjective" symptoms and "objective" symptoms. It's a very useful distinction between things that only the patient can tell you versus things that can be observes and tested for. How do you run a test to determine if a patient is "really" experiencing chest pain? You cannot. You can run tests to try and determine an obvious cause for that symptom, but there is no test to tell you if say perhaps the patient is lying about having chest pain.
- rhino369 4y agoIt might be a useful distinction, but it's weird terminology to a layman. Because in non-medical lingo, those are symptoms in the USA.