ABSTRACT
Disease has been defined as “any condition associated with discomfort, pain, disability, death, or an increased liability to these states, regarded by physicians and the general public as properly the responsibility of the medical profession” (Guze, 1978, p. 296). The words used when describing disease all have negative connotations (discomfort, pain, disability, death). The presence of such states is not sufficient to classify a condition as a disease, however. There also has to be an agreement between experts and the general public that the condition is a responsibility of the medical profession.
