Nervous System, Senses & Behavioral Health

This is Unit Twelve of Medical Terminology, Part Three: the eating disorder and substance use vocabulary, drafted into this unit's reserved gap block and numbered 0807 through 0824. These eighteen entries were held back when the rest of the unit was written, and drafted a good deal later into numbers the unit had reserved for exactly this. Gapped numbering exists so a course can insert material after release without renumbering anything around it, and Unit Twelve's reserve fell from forty-four free numbers to twenty-six when these eighteen were spent. They are deliberately short. Where a definition could be extended, it is not. The rule is the one the behavioral health entries set two parts ago, at its strictest. The course defines a term and stops. No entry here names a method, an amount, a weight, a threshold, or anything a viewer could read back as a test of themselves. The failure the rule exists to prevent is not a wrong definition. It is a correct one that begins to work as instruction, which is why these terms waited for a decision rather than being drafted with the rest. Fifteen of the eighteen carry a support line on screen for the full runtime of their entry. Those lines are shown and never spoken, here or anywhere in the catalog. Nothing in this narration names one. Three of the eighteen carry no line at all, because they are word-part and general-pathology entries that happen to sit at these numbers, and the run is not uniform in either direction. There is ordinary decoding in the run and it is worth having. One suffix names appetite, a prefix from Unit Three cancels it, a combining form names stupor, and a prefix from the same unit names removal. The rest of the work is telling near neighbours apart: a symptom from a disorder, an adaptation from a diagnosis, a temporary state from a lasting one. Each of those pairs exists in the vocabulary because records use both members and use them differently, and each entry names the misreading it is there to stop. By the end you will be able to do five things. One: state the boundary this course sets on these terms, and say what reading one correctly requires. Two: say what orexia names, and separate anorexia the symptom from anorexia nervosa. Three: tell the three eating disorder terms apart, and say what body image names. Four: name the two terms filed beside this run that do not belong to it. Five: tell the substance use terms apart, from the disorder term through to relapse and remission.

One entry opens this part, and it is a boundary rather than a word. It says what the eighteen entries will do and what they will not, and it speaks to the viewer directly rather than about the material. The book's own record calls this the framing entry of the block, and the entry two parts back that it points to sets the same limit for behavioral health generally. Reading it as a disclaimer bolted to the vocabulary gets it backwards. At this number the limit is the vocabulary lesson, and everything after it is written to that limit.

The boundary, before the words.

MedTerm 0807 How This Course Handles These Terms

This course defines eating disorder and substance use terms and stops, naming what each word means and nothing more. Each entry gives a meaning in one sentence. The warning speaks to the viewer rather than about the material: if any of this describes you or someone you know, the support line on screen is the right next step, not this video.

Two entries, and the decoding work of the whole run sits in the first of them. A suffix names appetite, a prefix numbered in Unit Three cancels it, and the word that results names a symptom appearing in records for many illnesses. The second entry states that plainly, because the two-word term arriving next is a different thing. This is the decoding machine doing what it was built to do — a suffix and a prefix, both numbered elsewhere in the course, combining into a term neither of them mentions.

Appetite.

MedTerm 0808 -orexia: Appetite

The suffix orexia names appetite. The prefix an, numbered in Unit Three as without, joins it to give anorexia, without appetite. Orexia names appetite, and phagia, numbered in the digestive unit, names swallowing. The two suffixes sit close enough in reading that this entry's warning exists to hold them apart.

The symptom.

MedTerm 0809 Anorexia: Loss of Appetite

Anorexia names a loss of appetite, and it appears in records for many conditions — infection, cancer and medication reactions among them. Used alone, anorexia is a symptom. A two-word term names something different, and the next entry gives that term. This is where the symptom and the disorder are held apart.

Three entries, run as a cluster in the book's own timing pass. Each names a pattern, and each is separated from its neighbour by one stated feature and by nothing else. None gives a threshold, a measurement or a behaviour, and each was drafted so that no sentence in it could be turned around and read as a checklist. All three carry a support line on screen for the full runtime, and the third entry's warning is the plainest line in the run.

The two-word term.

MedTerm 0810 Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder involving restriction of food intake and a disturbance in how body weight or shape is experienced. The second word carries the whole difference between the disorder and the symptom. This is a definition of a term. It is not a description anyone should measure themselves against.

A pattern, and what follows it.

MedTerm 0811 Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder involving recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by compensatory behavior. The term names the pattern and not any particular behavior within it. This entry names a word. Support is on screen, and a clinician is the person to speak to.

What the third one lacks.

MedTerm 0812 Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating disorder is an eating disorder involving recurrent episodes of eating with a sense of loss of control, without regular compensatory behavior. The absence of compensatory behavior is what separates this term from the previous one. These three terms name three patterns. None of them is a test.

Two adjacent numbers that read as a pair and are not one. The first is a clinical term for a perception; it belongs to the eating disorder run and carries its support line. The second names a physical wasting arising from chronic illness, is filed here by number rather than by subject, and carries no support line — flagging it as an eating disorder term would misfile it. Adjacency in a gapped numbering scheme records the drafting order and nothing else, and this is the place in the unit where that matters most.

A perception, in a record.

MedTerm 0813 Body Image as a Clinical Term

Body image is a clinical term for a person's perception of their own body's appearance. A record may note that body image is disturbed, meaning perception and observation differ. The term names a perception. It carries no measurement and no standard.

Wasting, from illness.

MedTerm 0814 Cachexia

Cachexia is a general wasting of the body seen in some chronic illnesses, and it appears in oncology and chronic disease records. Cachexia names a physical state arising from illness, not an eating disorder. It sits beside this run in the numbering, and the book files it outside the run on purpose rather than by accident.

Two entries open the substance use half. The first names the condition in the wording current practice uses, and the entry says why the wording changed: the older words carried judgement where this one carries description. The second is a combining form that ordinary speech has attached to a class of substance it never named. It is another of the places where a word part means something other than the meaning it was given a number for, and the entry teaches that as a limit of the method rather than hiding it.

The current term.

MedTerm 0815 A Substance Use Disorder

A substance use disorder is a condition in which continued use of a substance causes significant impairment or distress. The term replaces older words that carried judgement rather than description. This entry names a term. Support is on screen, and a clinician is the person to speak to.

Stupor.

MedTerm 0816 narc/o: Stupor

The combining form narc slash o names stupor or numbness. Narcolepsy is a condition of sudden attacks of sleep, built on the suffix lepsy numbered earlier in this unit. Narc slash o names a state and not a class of substance, despite the common usage that points the other way.

Three entries in prerequisite sequence, each citing the one before it, so the run has to be taken in order to be taken at all. All three describe adaptation — a body that has changed, and a body that is changed back. None of them states an amount, a duration or a course of action, and each carries a support line on screen for its full runtime. The middle one carries the distinction the whole topic exists for, and a record can carry it without carrying the disorder term at all.

Less effect than before.

MedTerm 0817 Tolerance

Tolerance is a state in which a substance produces less effect than it did previously. It is described in relation to a substance and to the effect that has diminished. The term names a physiological change. It states nothing about any amount.

The body, adapted.

MedTerm 0818 Dependence

Dependence is a state in which the body has adapted to a substance and functions differently without it. Dependence is a physiological description, separate from a substance use disorder. The two are not the same term and records use them differently, so a record may carry one without the other.

What follows stopping.

MedTerm 0819 Withdrawal

Withdrawal is the set of effects that follow stopping or reducing a substance the body has adapted to, and it is recorded in relation to the substance involved. This entry names a term. What withdrawal requires is a clinical matter, and support is on screen.

Three more terms, and the axis shifts. Tolerance, dependence and withdrawal named lasting adaptation; these name occurrences. One is a temporary state, one is an amount the body cannot process — named without any amount being given — and one is a process of clearing. The middle entry is the only one in the whole course carrying two support lines, because the term sits at the intersection of both. All three of these were redrafted once, to remove prerequisites reaching forward into a later unit, and the versions here are the repaired ones.

A temporary state.

MedTerm 0820 Intoxication

Intoxication is a temporary state of altered function following the use of a substance, recorded together with the substance involved. Intoxication names a temporary state where tolerance and dependence name lasting ones, and placing that contrast is what this entry exists to do.

More than the body can process.

MedTerm 0821 Overdose

Overdose names the taking of a substance in an amount greater than the body can safely process, and the term is recorded together with the substance involved. This entry defines a word and gives no amount for anything. Support is on screen.

Clearing.

MedTerm 0822 Detoxification

Detoxification is the process by which a substance is cleared from the body. The prefix de names removal, which is the decoding work inside the term. The entry names a process. How that process is managed is a clinical matter, and support is on screen.

Two entries close the unit. The first is a pair of terms that travel well past this run — oncology, behavioral health and substance use records all use both — and neither of them carries any judgement. The second is the procedure entry, and it closes the way the run opened: on what these words do not do. Its prerequisites reach back to six of the entries already covered, which makes it the one place where the whole run is held in view at once.

Two turns in a course.

MedTerm 0823 Relapse and Remission

Relapse is a return of a condition after a period of improvement; remission is a period in which its signs decrease or disappear. Both terms are used across oncology, behavioral health and substance use records. Both name a change in the course of a condition, and neither carries any judgement.

Three distinctions, and one refusal.

MedTerm 0824 Reading These Terms Without Overreading Them

Three distinctions the vocabulary makes, and one it does not. Anorexia against anorexia nervosa: one word names a symptom appearing in many illnesses, two words name a specific eating disorder, and the second word carries the whole difference. Dependence against substance use disorder: dependence describes the body adapting, the disorder term describes impairment or distress, and a record may carry one without the other. Tolerance against withdrawal: tolerance is less effect from the same amount, withdrawal is what follows stopping, and both concern adaptation at opposite ends. What none of these terms does is identify a condition in anyone. They are the words a clinician writes after an assessment this course does not teach.

Five things to carry out of Part Three, and one of them is the shape of the other four. The course defines these terms and stops. Each entry gives a meaning in one sentence, and where a definition could be extended, it is not. Reading one of these terms correctly means knowing what it says and what it does not, and none of them identifies a condition in anyone. They are the words a clinician writes after an assessment this course does not teach. The run opens on that statement and closes on it, and the entries in between are written to it rather than around it. Orexia names appetite, and the prefix an gives anorexia, without appetite. Anorexia alone is a symptom, recorded in infection, cancer and medication reactions. Anorexia nervosa is a different term, and the second word carries the whole difference. Phagia, one suffix away, names swallowing rather than appetite. The three eating disorder terms are separated by stated features and by nothing else. Anorexia nervosa names restriction and a disturbance in how weight or shape is experienced. Bulimia nervosa names recurrent binge eating followed by compensatory behavior. Binge eating disorder names those episodes without regular compensatory behavior. Body image names a perception and carries no measurement and no standard. Two terms are filed beside this run and belong to neither half of it. Cachexia is a general wasting arising from chronic illness, an oncology and chronic disease word. Narc slash o names stupor or numbness, a state and not a class of substance, and narcolepsy is built on it with the suffix lepsy from earlier in this unit. Both are ordinary terminology entries at numbers that make them look like something else, which is the one thing gapped numbering costs. A substance use disorder is continued use causing significant impairment or distress. Tolerance is less effect than before, dependence is a body that functions differently without the substance, and withdrawal is what follows stopping. Intoxication is temporary where those are lasting. Overdose is defined and no amount is given. Detoxification is clearing, on the prefix de. Relapse and remission name changes in the course of a condition and carry no judgement. Unit Thirteen turns to the endocrine system, which cites this unit by number.