What makes an illness acute

If all goes well, the person returns to normal health. Acute illnesses usually follow this course of becoming ill, getting worse for a while, treatment or observation of the symptoms and then getting better.

Chronic illnesses, on the other hand, are not so easily diagnosed and treated. They often come on slowly and continue to develop slowly. For example, a person may feel slight twinges of pain or occasional stiffening of joints at the onset of arthritis. Gradually these symptoms may increase until the pain and stiffness make it difficult for the individual to get around or easily handle everyday tasks. In the case of diabetes, early symptoms may be mild, such as frequent urination or feeling very thirsty.

Some people may feel no symptoms at all. As the disease progresses, however, complications can develop if it is not managed. These complications include kidney disease, neuropathy and high blood pressure.

Chronic illnesses often have multiple causes. These conditions will require immediate medical attention and treatment. What does it mean to have an acute illness? An acute illness is characterized by a sudden onset of pain or a severity in condition which runs a short course either naturally or with short-term medical care in cases such as an accident, injury or a serious illness.

These types of illnesses include anything from a sore throat to a broken bone, a burn or a case of sinusitis. What are the most common acute illnesses? Most common examples of an acute illness include:. A common cold is an upper respiratory tract infection and can be infectious.

By definition of an acute illness, a cold is also considered to be an acute illness, especially if accompanied by other symptoms such as high fever, wheezing, shortness of breath, and sore throat.

At Integra, our focus is on you, our patient. Integrating your care with our quality. Go Green! Chronic conditions. Updated November 27, Bernell S, Howard SW. Use your words carefully: What is a chronic disease? Front Public Health. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for VerywellHealth. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data.

We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. I Accept Show Purposes. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. General Definitions. Phases of Illness. Flaws in Definitions. Clearing Up Confusion. Acute Symptoms develop quickly Expected to be brief; typically resolves in less than six months.

Chronic Symptoms have a slow onset and can worsen over time Persists beyond six months. Differences in Acute and Subacute Symptoms. What Is Informed Consent? Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Sign Up. What are your concerns? Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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