Disorder (medicine)

Overview
In medicine, a disorder is a functional abnormality or disturbance.

In many cases, the terms "disorder", "disease" and "illness" are used interchangeably. However, the term "disorder" is often considered more value-neutral than the term "disease", and is preferred by some patients with these conditions.

Medical disorders can be categorized into mental disorders or physical disorders. Mental disorder is the far more common term and physical disorder is mostly used just for distinction purposes.