Malaise | |
---|---|
Other names | Discomfort, uneasiness |
Pronunciation | |
Specialty | Family medicine, Internal medicine, Pediatrics, Geriatrics, Psychiatry, Clinical psychology |
Symptoms | Feeling of uneasiness or discomfort |
Diagnostic method | Based on symptoms |
Differential diagnosis | Pain, anxiety, depression |
As a medical term, malaise is a feeling of general discomfort, uneasiness or lack of wellbeing and often the first sign of an infection or other disease. [1] The word has existed in French since at least the 12th century.
The term is often used figuratively in other contexts, in addition to its meaning as a general state of angst or melancholy.
Malaise is a non-specific symptom and can be present in the slightest ailment, such as an emotion (causing fainting, a vasovagal response) or hunger (light hypoglycemia [2]), to the most serious conditions ( cancer, stroke, heart attack, internal bleeding, etc.).
Malaise expresses a patient's uneasiness that "something is not right" that may need a medical examination to determine the significance.
Malaise is thought to be caused by the activation of an immune response, and the associated pro-inflammatory cytokines. [3]
" Economic malaise" refers to an economy that is stagnant or in recession (compare depression). The term is particularly associated with the 1973–75 United States recession. [4] An era of American automotive history, centered around the 1970s, is similarly called the " malaise era."
The "Crisis of Confidence" speech made by US President Jimmy Carter in 1979 is commonly referred to as the " malaise speech", although the word itself was not actually in the speech. [5]