Idiopathic means "having unidentified causes"

If the case of the disease is said to be "idiopathic", it means "peculiar", "having unidentified causes"; That is, the origin of this condition is not associated with other conditions or diseases of the patient.

What are idiopathic diseases?

Applying the term "idiopathy" to a disease or pathological condition, clinicians emphasize the ambiguity of its etiology.

Idiopathic disease is not a manifestation, symptom or consequence of another pathology. It is primary and is not associated with any dependence on other health problems.

Idiopathic disorders can occur in almost all organs and systems of the body. Diagnosis of them is based on the registration of anomalies from the work of the affected organs and systems; And treatment - to eliminate the symptomatology revealed by the examination and described by the patient.

In the case of a comprehensive individual approach, a completely successful treatment of idiopathic diseases is possible.

When formulating the diagnosis, the doctor, together with the name of the pathology, indicates the idiopathic sign. This means that we are talking about an independent disease (example: "juvenile idiopathic arthritis").

Can we predict?

In a number of cases, it is only possible to establish a set of provoking factors capable of provoking an idiopathic disease, and thus outline the approximate boundaries of the risk groups for each of the known pathologies.

Inside such a risk group, this disease will indeed occur more often, but there is no clear quantitative relationship.

Examples

• Fibrozing alveolitis, classified as idiopathic. This is a pathological process localized in the alveoli of the lungs, leading to their densification and infiltration with a connective tissue, which has a nature that is still unclear. The provoking factors are known; In the risk group, people who have regular contact with silicate, asbestos, metal or wood dust, as well as with tobacco smoke.
• Idiopathic purpura. The disease is typical for girls in the age group up to 14 years.
• Diseases of generalized tics. One of the variants of its course is idiopathic. This disease is characterized by pronounced hyperkinetic phenomena, disorders of balance and vocalization. In some cases, there is obsessive speech. There are cases of manifestation of this form of the disease and without any provoking factors. However, a number of cases coincide with external adverse effects (in particular, the case of development of pathology after the child receiving a potent drug) is known.