ABSTRACT
This chapter provides only a cursory overview of environmental, latrogenic and nutritional disease in keeping with the policy of classifying disease on the basis of disordered mechanisms operating at particular levels within the organism, and not according to the aetiological agent. A major class of disease is iatrogenic disease caused by clinical management, particularly the administration of drugs with harmful side effects. Drug side effects are common, varied in their manifestations, and their consequences range from mild to life threatening. Anatomical pathologists have made a considerable contribution to the initial recognition and description of the side effects of drugs that cause structural changes and affect internal organs such as the liver, gut, kidneys and lungs. Economic, social and psychological factors are the dominant causes of nutritional disease, but malnutrition can have an organic basis associated with diagnosable structural abnormalities. Both weight loss and iron deficiency anaemia may be due to malignancy.
