Chronic illness

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. Diabetes is a good example.

The definition of a disease or causative condition may depend on the disease being chronic, and the term will often appear in the description:


 * Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
 * Chronic fatigue syndrome
 * Chronic hepatitis
 * Chronic leukemia
 * Chronic arthritis
 * POTS

In clinical psychology there are conditions that we are involved in treating that may be regarded as chronic - for example Chronic psychosis.