eli5 what is the difference between a syndrome and a disorder
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It will be easier if I start with a tl:dr, even though its a big paragraph
Tldr: disorder = one specific condition where all of it can be described pathologically as one thing (eg chrones disease has a specific look under a microscope with gut biopsies). A syndrome is a collection of apparently unrelated disorders affecting a group of people more than would occur randomly (eg people with Down syndrome all have similar facial features and body habitus, as well as low tone and some degree of intellectual disability)
In reality, there aren’t strict definitions on what each are, and in some cases it’s just depends on what some people decide to call it. For example autism also went by Kanner’s syndrome in the past, but we now use Autistic Spectrum Disorder when it was recognised there was a greater spectrum of the condition than described by Kanner. Down syndrome can also be called Trisomy 21 which describes the person have an extra chromosome 21, and there for 3.
A syndrome is a collection of medical conditions, that would usually seem unrelated, but it’s then recognised that they occur more often together in a group of patients. And then it’s worked out that in those people they have a specific underlying cause leading to all of them. For example, in Down syndrome, why would you have a group of unrelated people who have similar facial features? And then those same people all have similar other things going on like low muscle tone and intellectual disability. It’s first got formally recognised by a Dr Down in the 19th century and the description was published in medical journals. It was later on after dna and chromosomes were discovered that it was found they all have the same extra chromosome.
Technically if it is found that a group of patients have a collection of unrelated conditions it should be called an Association. There is something called CHARGE syndrome. In the early 2000s then gene that caused it was found, so it became CHARGE syndrome, having previous been called CHARGE Association. In practice, this distinction is rarely used.
The above terms are more modern definitions. In the past you wouldn’t necessarily need to know the common underlying mechanism for the association, it would just be recognised that there must be one for someone to give it a “insert name here” syndrome name.
It’s now not so common to give a condition a name with syndrome. Naming of conditions tends to be more descriptive of the condition.
A disorder can be viewed as one specific condition affecting one system of the body.
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