Sickness behavior
Aspect of psychology / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sickness behavior is a coordinated set of adaptive behavioral changes that develop in ill individuals during the course of an infection.[1] They usually, but not always,[2] accompany fever and aid survival. Such illness responses include lethargy, depression, anxiety, malaise, loss of appetite,[3][4] sleepiness,[5] hyperalgesia,[6] reduction in grooming[1][7] and failure to concentrate.[8] Sickness behavior is a motivational state that reorganizes the organism's priorities to cope with infectious pathogens.[8][9] It has been suggested as relevant to understanding depression,[10] and some aspects of the suffering that occurs in cancer.