Sickness behavior is a coordinated set of adaptive behavioral changes that develop in ill individuals during the course of an infection. They usually (but not necessarily) accompany fever and aid survival. Such illness responses include lethargy, depression, anxiety, loss of appetite, sleepiness, hyperalgesia, reduction in grooming and failure to concentrate. Sickness behavior is a motivational state that reorganizes the organism's priorities to cope with infectious pathogens. It has been suggested as relevant to understanding depression, and some aspects of the suffering that occurs in cancer.
Read more about Sickness Behavior: History, Immune Control, Behavioral Conditioning, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words sickness and/or behavior:
“It seems to me that physical sickness softens, just as moral sickness hardens, the heart.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Understanding child development takes the emphasis away from the child’s character—looking at the child as good or bad. The emphasis is put on behavior as communication. Discipline is thus seen as problem-solving. The child is helped to learn a more acceptable manner of communication.”
—Ellen Galinsky (20th century)