Prodromal phase
The prodromal phase is the “preliminary phase or precursor phase of diseases”, in which only prodromes - usually uncharacteristic symptoms that precede a disease - occur. In this phase, therefore, it is usually not possible to make a diagnosis on the basis of the symptoms alone, unless this is suggested by the patient's medical history . In the case of infectious diseases, the prodromal phase is preceded by the (symptom-free) incubation period .
The prodromal phase can last from days (e.g. malaria ) to years (e.g. schizophrenia up to five years), so it depends heavily on the disease. The occurrence and severity of the symptoms are also not uniform.
Prodromal phases are important (but do not have to occur in every patient) in:
- Dengue fever
- Diverticulitis
- epilepsy
- Herpes simplex
- malaria
- measles
- migraine
- Schizophrenia - In the early drafts of the DSM-5 (the classification of mental illnesses used in the USA from 2013) it was planned to classify the prodromal phase itself (as the so-called psychosis risk syndrome ); however, the controversial proposals were dropped for the final draft of the DSM-5.
- chickenpox
supporting documents
- ↑ Prodromalphase from med.de (accessed January 4, 2015)
- ↑ Amy Maxmen: Psychosis risk syndrome excluded from DSM-5 . In: Nature News . May 9, 2012. doi : 10.1038 / nature.2012.10610 . Retrieved January 4, 2015.