“Somatic pathology” is a term that the patient can often hear from the mouth of the attending physician, but its meaning is not known to every person far from the field of medicine. It is important to understand that this definition is the starting point of medicine in the fight against bodily ailments. The word "pathology" indicates a process that is outside the normal functioning of a he althy body, and the definition "somatic" indicates a disease of the body. Next, consider the issue in more detail. Let's discuss what diseases are hidden behind the term "somatic pathology", what are their distinguishing features, how they proceed, how they are treated, and whether it is possible to protect yourself from such ailments.
What is this?
So, the topic of our conversation is somatic pathology. What it is? The answer will sound something like this: this is a violation of the functional activity of any systems and organs. The opposite of this phenomenon is a disease provoked by the psychological or mental state of a person.
Thus, any bodily ailment is called a somatic disorder.
Differences from non-somatic pathology
It is extremely important to differentiate these two concepts, because there are diseases that have a set of specific symptoms that cause significant physical discomfort to a person, but do not fit the definition of "somatic pathology".
A classic example of such a disorder is vegetovascular dystonia. Panic attacks that occur in a person suffering from VVD may be accompanied by chest pain, shortness of breath, severe weakness, tremors. That is, the symptoms are similar to signs of cardiovascular pathology, but in fact there is a functional impairment of the nervous system, provoked by stress or weakening of the body.
Thus, when a patient contacts a medical institution, the doctor must first of all determine whether the person really has a somatic pathology, or the patient needs to consult a psychotherapist.
Acute disease
Speaking of somatic processes, it is necessary to classify them according to the nature of their development and course into acute and chronic.
The distinction between these forms is sometimes conditional, because the vast majority of diseases in the acute stage without proper treatment transform into a chronic pathology. The exceptions are diseases whose symptoms can go away on their own (ARI), or those that end in death if the disease causes processes in the body that are incompatible with life.
Acute somatic disease is a pathology that develops rapidly, and the clinical picture is pronounced. Don't notice atthemselves signs of acute pathology is almost impossible.
First of all, acute diseases include most of the viral and bacterial processes, poisoning, inflammation against the background of infections. Thus, an acute disease is characterized by the influence of an external factor, such as a virus, bacteria, toxin.
The process can last from one day to six months. If during this period the disease is not eliminated, we can assume that the acute form has become chronic.
Chronic disease
Somatic pathology, the signs of which are present in the body after the treatment of the acute form, is called chronic.
Most often, the transition to this form occurs when the treatment of an acute disease has not been done properly and in the required amount. This may mean the wrong choice of drug for treatment, and even non-compliance with the regimen. That is why, for the successful elimination of a number of diseases, it is recommended that the patient stay in the hospital: with strict bed rest and a balanced diet, the body spends energy on a quick recovery. In the event that the patient suffers the disease “on his feet”, there is not enough strength to fight the disease, so the body adapts to the disease, transferring it from an acute form to a less pronounced one.
The second reason why chronic somatic pathology occurs is the lack of an effective algorithm in modern medicine.therapy. For most diseases, there are methods to maintain he alth in the face of chronic illness. Sometimes this allows you to stop the disease, subject to lifelong medication, in other cases - to slow down the loss of organ function or simply extend the life of the patient.
Finally, the chronic form of the disease may be due to a genetic factor.
In chronic somatic pathology, diseases are characterized by a slow course with unexpressed symptoms. On the one hand, this provides patients with a higher standard of living: a person can maintain working capacity for a long time. On the other hand, it negatively affects the diagnostic process. Few people undergo medical examinations regularly, so often patients get to see a doctor already at a fairly advanced stage of the disease.
Degrees of severity
According to the definition, both acute respiratory disease and functional insufficiency of any body system equally fall under the definition of somatic pathology. However, it is quite obvious that there is a difference between diseases in terms of the degree of risk to the patient and the severity of symptoms. Therefore, there is reason to classify bodily ailments, dividing them into at least two categories: mild and severe somatic pathology.
Mild disease can be defined by two characteristics: the absence of pronounced symptoms, when the disease is tolerated by a person relatively easily, without causing loss of working capacity, and by the absence of risk to the patient's life. Another thing is a severe degreeillness. Let's talk about this.
Severe pathology
Severe somatic pathology has a vivid symptomatic picture. The inflammatory process may involve other systems of the body, in addition to the one in which the pathology was found. Such a disease entails a danger in the form of complications and the transition of the disease to a chronic form, in which functional failure may develop.
Almost any disease can be classified in this way. So, for example, a cold can occur in the form of a severe pathology, and a more dangerous disease, such as meningitis, can have a mild severity. There is also an intermediate grade, which is called the average.
Determining the severity of the disease is very important for productive therapy, for choosing a treatment plan, drugs, examination methods. In addition, the risk of developing complications depends on the form of the course of the disease. This means that the duration of the rehabilitation period and the number of restrictions during it will differ.
Exacerbations
The acute phase of the disease can develop against the background of an already existing pathology that occurs in a chronic form. Thus, the disease most of the time will have mild symptoms, but when exposed to certain factors (lack of treatment, hypothermia, stress, climate change, pregnancy, etc.), the disease can go into an acute phase, with accompanying symptoms.
In this case, we are talking about such a process as an exacerbation of somatic pathology. In contrast to the acute phase, an exacerbation ina favorable course is characterized not by a complete recovery, but by a return to the chronic stage of the disease as safer for the patient's life.
Methods of treating exacerbations and acute phases differ little in terms of the therapy regimen and the drugs used. However, for higher efficiency, doctors recommend prophylactic treatment in order to avoid exacerbations. In this case, the therapy is gentle and aimed at strengthening the body.
Diagnosis of pathologies
In order for a doctor to diagnose a patient and establish that in his case there is a somatic disease, he needs to carry out a number of diagnostic measures. The main sign of the disease is the presence of certain symptoms. However, a symptom is not always a guarantee of the presence of pathology. Disturbance of well-being can be provoked by a functional disorder of a particular system, and in this case, the disease cannot always be diagnosed.
Therefore, it is important for a doctor to consider a combination of factors in order to establish that the patient has a somatic pathology: symptoms, their complex, duration, conditions of manifestation. So, for example, pain cannot be a clear sign of pathology, but if it bothers a person for a long time and, say, vomiting is noted in combination with it, the fact of the presence of a somatic disorder is more than obvious. At the same time, if the cause of pain is a blow, there was no pathology in a person before the traumatic factor.
Diagnostic Methods
Fordiagnostics in modern medicine, several methods are used:
- Patient history taking, oral questioning;
- examination of the patient, palpation;
- use of laboratory diagnostic methods (examination of urine, blood, sputum, organ tissues, etc.);
- use of functional diagnostic methods (ultrasound, X-ray, etc.);
- operational examination methods.
To confirm the presence of somatic pathology, several different analyzes with deviations from the norm or at least three examinations made at short intervals and always by one method are required.
Treatment of pathologies
Therapy of somatic ailments is the main component of the activities of doctors. Medicine today uses an evidence-based method, that is, only those methods are used, the degree of high efficiency of which is high, and the degree of danger is as low as possible.
Treatment of somatic pathologies is most often carried out with medication. Drugs can either work on the cause of the disease, eliminating it (for example, antiviral drugs act on the virus that provoked a respiratory illness), or reduce the severity of symptoms (painkillers).
The second most common treatment is surgery. The priority for doctors is the medical method as it is simpler and safer. But in the event that the drugs are ineffective, or the expectation of the effectfrom their impact carries a risk to the patient's life, they resort to surgical interventions.
For the treatment of somatic pathology, the methods of physiotherapy, physiotherapy exercises and massage, herbal medicine, diet therapy also showed themselves well.
Other methods with a degree of effectiveness not proven at the scientific level are rarely used to treat somatic diseases. But they can be successfully used to eliminate non-somatic pathologies, in which the placebo method often leads to a positive result.
Prevention
The vast majority of somatic pathologies can be de alt with by proven methods of prevention. Most of them are simple recommendations for maintaining a he althy lifestyle. This is hygiene maintenance, a balanced diet, an optimal level of regular physical activity, vaccination.
Non-somatic diseases, which are based on mental disorders, often develop under the influence of factors that a person cannot prevent. Such factors can be heredity, trauma, the onset of a certain age.
