<Dd> A medical condition is a broad term that includes all diseases, lesions, disorders, or nonpathologic condition that normally receives medical treatment, such as pregnancy or childbirth . While the term medical condition generally includes mental illnesses, in some contexts the term is used specifically to denote any illness, injury, or disease except for mental illnesses . The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the widely used psychiatric manual that defines all mental disorders, uses the term general medical condition to refer to all diseases, illnesses, and injuries except for mental disorders . This usage is also commonly seen in the psychiatric literature . Some health insurance policies also define a medical condition as any illness, injury, or disease except for psychiatric illnesses . </Dd> <Dd> As it is more value - neutral than terms like disease, the term medical condition is sometimes preferred by people with health issues that they do not consider deleterious . On the other hand, by emphasizing the medical nature of the condition, this term is sometimes rejected, such as by proponents of the autism rights movement . </Dd> <Dd> The term medical condition is also a synonym for medical state, in which case it describes an individual patient's current state from a medical standpoint . This usage appears in statements that describe a patient as being in critical condition, for example . </Dd> <Dd> Morbidity (from Latin morbidus, meaning' sick, unhealthy') is a diseased state, disability, or poor health due to any cause . The term may be used to refer to the existence of any form of disease, or to the degree that the health condition affects the patient . Among severely ill patients, the level of morbidity is often measured by ICU scoring systems . Comorbidity is the simultaneous presence of two or more medical conditions, such as schizophrenia and substance abuse . </Dd>

What characteristics of a disease might cause that disease to be less transmissible