Reduction
of appetite is an important symptom in medical practice. It is paid more
attention because it can indicate an underlying serious illness. Most of these
illnesses have treatment at their initial stages. Therefore, it is important to
identify them before they advance. Any disease can give rise to reduction of
appetite, but a significant reduction of appetite is a characteristic feature
for some diseases.
Physicians
consider several parameters when analyzing reduction of appetite. The duration
is one among them. As mentioned earlier, any illness can result in reduction of
appetite, but it is considered serious when it becomes significant. If you are
having reduction of appetite for weeks or months, it is considered significant.
Your physician will also inquire regarding the type of foods that you have
reduced appetite for. The amount of food that you take for a meal is also
inquired. Through this information, the physician will confirm the presence of
reduction of appetite and the extent of the condition. Reduction of appetite
and reduction of weight go hand in hand. So, it is important that you keep
track of your weight to help the diagnostic process.
There
are several illnesses that can give rise to reduction in appetite. Not only
physical illnesses but also psychological illnesses can result in loss of
appetite. It is a typical symptom of malignancies and tuberculosis. Loss of
appetite is a diagnostic criterion for depression as well.
Malignancies
Reduction
of appetite, loss of weight, fatigue and lethargy are characteristic features
of malignancies. These symptoms are known as constitutional symptoms. The
reason for most of these non-specific symptoms including reduction of appetite
is the loss of balance between endogenous cytokines and their natural
antagonists.
Reduction
of appetite is subjective, but loss of weight can be measured objectively.
Therefore, physicians use the amount of weight lost during a certain period of
time to quantify the severity of reduction in appetite.
Even
though cancers are generally considered to cause loss of appetite, some cancers
do not give rise to this characteristic feature. For example esophageal
carcinoma is a malignancy with preserved appetite. This feature is also used
for the diagnostic process of cancer. For example, both esophageal carcinoma
and stomach carcinoma can give rise to difficulty in swallowing, but physicians
can differentiate the two by the presence of reduction of appetite. As
mentioned earlier, if the patient is having an esophageal cancer, there will be
no reduction in appetite. On the other hand, gastric carcinoma is a well known
malignancy to cause significant reduction in appetite.
Tuberculosis
Reduction
in appetite is a characteristic feature of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a
common disease in the developing world. The initial symptoms of tuberculosis
can be very non specific. Therefore, there should be a high degree of suspicion
to diagnose tuberculosis based on these non specific symptoms. Loss of appetite
is a common symptom among them. It is usually associated with other
constitutional symptoms such as loss of weight, fever, night sweats, etc.
Depression
Not
only medical conditions, but also psychological conditions can cause reduction
in appetite. Depression is one such psychological disorder. It is one of
the diagnostic criteria of depression according to the ICD 10 classification.
Apart
from malignancies, tuberculosis and depression there are many other diseases
that can give rise to reduction in appetite. Even simple viral fever, cold,
gastroenteritis can have reduction of appetite. So, it is an important symptom
that can be used to identify many illnesses.
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