Lesson 20: Naming of Diseases and Treatments
- Objectives
- Medical Endings
- Disease Naming
- Drugs
- Vocabulary List
- Vocabulary Practice
- Reflection Questions
Objectives
- Learn how endings are used in names of diseases and drugs
- Overview of how Greek and Latin disease names are formed
- Introduction to drug naming
Medical Endings
Recall from Unit 2 that endings are a special class of suffixes that indicate what part of speech a word is, and provide further context clues to its meaning. We’ve seen some of these endigns before. Now let’s look at these in detail.
The ending -osis indicates a condition or disease, often one that is abnormal or pathological. This is frequently used to describe diseases related to the abnormal function or structure of a specific body system, often with adjective roots that further describe physical symptoms. For example, cirrhosis refers to a liver condition marked by liver scarring and eventual failure. The root cirrh means “tawny”, referring to the unhealthy color in the late stages. Similarly, scoliosis refers to an abnormal curvature of the spine (scoli meaning “twisted” or “curved”).
The ending -itis refers to inflammation, and is used to describe diseases or conditions where a specific part of the body is inflamed due to infection, injury, or autoimmune reactions. For instance, arthritis involves the inflammation of the joints, while gastritis refers to the inflammation of the stomach lining.
The endings -ia and -y (recall that they mean the same thing!) often refer to conditions or states that are abnormal or diseased. -ia is used to denote a state or condition, while -y can denote a process or state, often linked to an abnormality. An example is anemia (a deficiency of red blood cells or hemoglobin), which reflects a state of low oxygen-carrying capacity in the blood. Another example is hypothermia, a condition in which a person’s body temperature becomes unhealthily low.
The ending -sis is used in terms that describe processes or conditions that involve a certain state or activity, often chronic or progressive. For example, hypnosis refers to a state of consciousness that may involve changes in brain chemistry, while lysis refers to the breaking down of cells or tissues, often as a result of infection or chemical exposure. These suffixes highlight the chemical processes that are either disrupted or triggered by certain conditions in the body.
Finally, the ending -oid, often seen in the plural -oids, is used for conditions that might resemble another anatomical feature or condition, but they’re not identical. For example, a fibroid resembles muscle or tissue fibers, but they are actually a type of tumor. A cystoid is an accumulation of fluids or tissues that resembles a cyst, but lacks the membrane that typical cysts have.
Disease Naming
While endings reflect the type of condition or disease, roots tend to reflect the cause of the condition or the affected region, such as bacteremia (the presence of bacteria in the bloodstream) or cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle). This practice of using disease-causing agents or pathological processes as part of the naming system helps not only in identifying the disease but also in understanding its etiology, or its origin.
Most diseases are named either after the symptoms they cause or the body parts they affect. For instance, pneumonia refers to an infection of the lungs, combining the base pneumon with the ending -ia. Cardiovascular diseases are a class of diseases that affect the heart (cardio) and vessels (vascular), while diseases of the digestive system such as colitis (inflammation of the colon) use the root word “col-“ to indicate the colon as the affected body part. In this way, the structure and function of the body system being targeted play a significant role in the disease’s nomenclature.
A number of bacterial or viral diseases are named for the physical characteristics of the vector. A well-known example from recent years is the coronavirus, so called because of the virus cells’ resemblance to a crown (corona in Latin).
Some diseases are named after the person who discovered them, such as Alzheimer’s disease, named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, who first identified the condition in 1906. Similarly, Lou Gehrig’s disease (the formal name for which is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS) is named after the famous baseball player who was diagnosed with it. This naming practice serves as a tribute to the contributions of these individuals, whose observations or experiences helped increase awareness and understanding of these medical conditions.
In some cases, diseases are named for the places where they were first identified or studied. Ebola virus disease, for instance, is named after the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the disease was first recognized. This type of naming can be useful for tracking the origin and spread of infectious diseases, and can also be a useful historical reference for healthcare researchers and professionals.
Drugs
Drug Classes
Drugs are categorized into various classes based on their chemical composition, mechanism of action, and therapeutic effects. For example, antibiotics are a class of drugs used to treat infections caused by bacteria. Within antibiotics, there are further subdivisions such as penicillins, macrolides, and tetracyclines, all of which are named for their chemical compositions. Penicillin derives its name from the Latin word for “brush” or “broom”, a nod to its broom-like chains in its chemical structure. You might recognize the root macro in macrolide, a reference to its ring-like structure containing at least 15 or 16 atoms. Tetra and cycl together mean “four circles”, which reference the four ring-like structures in the molecules of these compounds.
Another important drug class is antipyretics, which are used to reduce fever. Pyr is a root typically meaning “fire”, but in the context of the human body, usually means “fever”. Generally, drug classes will use Greek and Latin terms like the ones you’re familiar with. However, the naming of specific drugs introduces several new roots coined from chemistry and pharmacology.
Drug Names
Most drugs have two names: their generic name, which is used by doctors and pharmacists, and their brand name or trade name under which they are sold or prescribed. The generic name is typically a simplified version of the drug’s chemical structure or its active ingredient. For example, ibuprofen comes from its chemical makeup: “iso-butyl-propanoic-phenolic acid”. Some of its brand names include Advil or Motrin.
Drug names are assigned by organizations like the United States Adopted Names (USAN) Council or the WHO INN Programme, who uses guidelines similar to the IUPAC’s guidelines on naming new elements. Specifically, according to the USAN, new drug names are evaluated on the following criteria:
- Whether a name reflects the drug action and fits the naming scheme.
- How well a name translates into languages other than English.
- How easy a name is to pronounce and remember.
While drug names themselves are fairly straightforward when broken down, analysis of their names requires a knowledge of linguistic roots that go beyond the Latin and Greek you’ve learned in this class. For example, benzodiazepines are a class of depressants used to treat anxiety and seizures. You might recognize dia and epi, but the root benzo comes from the Arabic term lubān jāwī, indicating its origin as a resin from Java.
Further, brand names are typically chosen by the pharmaceutical company that develops and markets the drug. In some cases, brand names might just be words that the companies make up that have little to do with Greek or Latin. “Advil” presumably has nothing to do with the Latin root ad, and vil is not a root that we’ve learned so far.
For this class, it suffices to know how drugs get their generic and brand names, rather than what these names mean.
Vocabulary List
| Root | Language of origin | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| spondyl | Greek | vertebrae, spine | spondylitis |
| scler(o) | Greek | hard, to harden | sclerosis |
| xer | Greek | dry | Xerox |
| spas(m) | Greek | to jerk, to move violently | spasm |
| camp(t) | Greek | to twist, to turn | camptosaur |
| poi(e) | Greek | to make | onomatopoeia |
| cyst | Greek | sac | cystic |
| thromb | Greek | to clot (as of blood) | thrombosis |
| cirrh | Greek | tawny | cirrhosis |
| rrho/rrhea | Greek | flow, discharge, current | diarrhea |
| scoli(o) | Greek | twisted | scoliosis |
| sept(i) | Greek | putrid | septic |
| sapr(o) | Greek | putrid, rotting | saprogenic |
| mim(e) | Greek | to copy, to imitate | mimic |
| necr(o) | Greek | death, dying | necromancy |
| pleur | Greek | side, rib | pleurodynia |
| sthen(o) | Greek | strength | calisthenics |
| tuber | Latin | lump, swelling | tuberous |
| cav | Latin | hollow | cavity |
| press | Latin | to press | pressure |
| varix/varic | Latin | swollen, twisted | varicose |
| articul | Latin | joint, utterance | articulation |
| rupt | Latin | to break, to burst | erupt |
| coll | Latin | neck | collar |
| sulc | Latin | furrow, groove | sulcus |
| cer | Latin | wax, waxy | triceratops |
| lat | Latin | wide | latitude |
| later | Latin | side, sideways | lateral |
Vocabulary Practice
Practice Set A: Identify the roots in each of the following words, give their language of origin, and their definitions. Also give their part of speech. Then, following the guidelines in Lesson 4, arrange the definitions of the individual roots to create a literal definition.
- spasmodic
- compressor
- antiseptic
- hydropoiesis
- sclera
- mimesis
- rupture
- osteonecrosis
- hematocyst
- polyspondyly
- multisulcate
- comorbidity
- abruption
- inarticulate
- dilation
Reflection Questions
- Like some organisms we saw in Unit 1, some diseases bear the names of their discoverers (e.g., Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s). Do you find this problematic or misleading? Why or why not?
- What similarities and differences do you see in how endings are used in medical and chemical vocabulary?
- Look through the drug naming guide provided in the end of the lesson. What endings do you notice? How are they similar or different from the ones we’ve learned in class?
- Why do you think it’s important for drugs to have both generic and brand names? What are some benefits and drawbacks to a double-naming system like this?