In medicine, the term syndrome is the association of several clinically recognizable features, signs, symptoms, phenomena or characteristics which often occur together, so that the presence of one feature alerts the physician to the presence of the others. In recent decades the term has been used outside of medicine to refer to a combination of phenomena seen in association.

The term syndrome derives from the Greek and means literally "run together," as the features do. The term syndrome is most often used when the reason that the features occur together (pathophysiology) has not yet been discovered. A familiar syndrome name often continues to be used even after an underlying cause has been found. Many syndromes are named after the physicians credited with first reporting the association; these are "eponymous" syndromes. Otherwise, disease features or presumed causes, as well as references to geography, history or poetry, can lend their names to syndromes.

AIDS, a case study

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A recent case study is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), so named as most syndromal immune deficiencies are either inborn or secondary to hematological disease. AIDS was originally termed "Gay Related Immune Disease" (or GRID), a name which was revised as the disease turned out to also affect heterosexuals. Several years passed after the recognition of AIDS before HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) was first described, finally explaining the hitherto mysterious "syndrome".

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National Institutes of Health (NIH) News Releases

NIH Scientists Identify Link Between Brain Systems Implicated in Schizophrenia
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:30:00 -0400
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have deciphered the complex relationship between three distinct brain circuits implicated in schizophrenia. The researchers determined that one brain circuit acts through an intermediary brain circuit. The intermediary circuit acts like a volume control knob, turning up the electrical activity of still another brain circuit, or turning it down. The finding suggests that schizophrenia could result from a malfunction anywhere in the link between these three brain circuits.
NIH Launches New Web Site for Parents on Medical Research Studies for Children
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:30:00 -0400
A new Web site from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), "Children and Clinical Studies" (www.ChildrenAndClinicalStudies.nhlbi.nih.gov), offers parents and health care providers an insider's guide to children's medical research.
Scientists Identify Gene Variant Involved in Isolated Cleft Lip
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:30:00 -0400
About 20 percent of isolated cleft lip, one of the world’s most common birth defects, may be due to a one-letter difference in the DNA sequence of a gene involved in facial development, researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health report.

CNN.com - Health

Ancient sport helps breast cancer survivors
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:23:15 -0400
Dragon boat racing dates back to ancient China, but some modern-day participants are breast cancer survivors who are using the sport to paddle their way back to physical and emotional health.
AIDS, cancer scientists scoop medicine Nobel
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:43:19 -0400
Two Frenchmen and a German won the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine for their discoveries of viruses that cause HIV and cervical cancer, the organization's Web site said Monday.

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