Psychogenic
In medicine, of mental or emotional origin. Refers most often to the psychological stimulus for disease or illness in the body. Certain illnesses, such as asthma, arthritis, fibromyalgia, heart disease, hypertension and ulcers are considered to have a strong psychogenic (mental) component. Severe stress, depression, anxiety, grief, or trauma are known psychogenic factors that contribute to the onset and severity of physical illness. Not to be confused with psychosomatic illness, which is the artificial creation of symptoms caused by mental processes of the sufferer without physiological cause. With psychogenic illness, the illness also has a biological basis – it is real.
