Chronic (medical)

Overview
In medicine, a chronic disease is a disease that is long-lasting or recurrent. The term chronic describes the course of the disease, or its rate of onset and development. A chronic course is distinguished from a recurrent course; recurrent diseases relapse repeatedly, with periods of remission in between. As an adjective, chronic can refer to a persistent and lasting medical condition. Chronicity is usually applied to a condition that lasts more than three months.

Chronic Disease
The definition of a disease or causative condition may depend on the disease being chronic, and the term chronic will often, but not always appear in the description:


 * Chronic fatigue syndrome
 * Chronic osteoarticular diseases: rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis
 * Chronic respiratory diseases: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma
 * Chronic renal failure
 * Diabetes mellitus
 * Chronic Hepatitis
 * Autoimmune diseases, like lupus erythematosus
 * Cardiovascular diseases: heart failure, ischemic cardiomyopathy, cerebrovascular disease
 * Neoplasic diseases not amenable to be cured
 * Osteoporosis

Treatment
Many chronic diseases require chronic care management for effective long-term treatment.

Related Chapters

 * Acute (medicine)
 * Homeopathic theory of chronic diseases
 * Chronic pain
 * Course (medicine)
 * Disease management (health)