pathologic

Pathologic is an adjective derived from pathology and used to describe abnormalities caused by disease or deviations from normal functioning. In medicine, it contrasts with physiologic and is used to indicate disease-related changes, such as a pathologic condition, a pathologic fracture, or a pathologic specimen. A pathologic fracture is a fracture that occurs in bone weakened by disease rather than by trauma. Pathology is the study of disease, and a pathologist is a clinician who examines tissues to diagnose disease; pathologic processes refer to disease-related changes at the cellular or tissue level.

In everyday and clinical language, pathologic is also used to characterize certain abnormal or morbid phenomena, especially chronic, compulsive behaviors, such as pathologic lying or pathological gambling. In psychiatry and behavioral medicine, gambling disorder is a formal diagnosis in DSM-5, though the term pathological gambling remains common in discussion and literature.

Pathologic also appears in cultural works and media titles, most notably the video game Pathologic (released 2005) by Ice-Pick Lodge, and its modern remake Pathologic 2. The word itself comes from Greek pathos (suffering) and -logia, and in scholarly contexts is closely tied to pathology, the medical science concerned with the causes and effects of disease.