environmental factors (e.g. bad air), learned behavioral patterns (hygiene) and economic disparities (to afford a doctor) all play a role in the course of a lung infection, even leading to death, too. I don't think it isn't a prime example of a disease.
Re:What If Addiction Is Not a Disease?
by vasilipupkin on Wednesday August 10, 2016 @10:49AM
(#12262167)
understood. But what matters to me when I am in the hospital with a lung infection is how to treat it so that it goes away, not what it's called
a slim majority of the panelists, including Murphy, did not want to emphasize the word "disease," because it implies that chemical dependence is primarily a function of pathology, when in fact environmental factors (dysfunction at home, stress at work), learned behavioral patterns (binge drinking, for instance), and economic disparities have been shown to play a significant causal role. Clearly, the debate was not just semantic.