Meaning of symptoms

Symptoms and their description are a central component of medical care. They are crucial for diagnosis, treatment planning, disease monitoring and for monitoring the success of treatments.

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Symptoms in the diagnosis

Symptoms are often the first indication of a possible illness. Describing the symptoms that occur enables the treating physician to make a suspected diagnosis. This is then supplemented by specific examinations such as laboratory tests or imaging procedures to confirm or refute a suspicion.

As different diseases can be accompanied by similar symptoms, it is important to describe the symptoms as precisely as possible. This is because it helps treating physicians to differentiate between various possible diseases (differential diagnosis).

In addition, detailed symptom descriptions enable a risk assessment, as some symptoms can indicate serious or acute illnesses, such as a heart attack or stroke.

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Symptoms in treatment planning

Within a disease, symptoms can be individualised. This means that not every patient experiences the same symptoms. Instead, symptoms can vary in their nature and severity. The personal symptoms have a decisive influence on the decision as to which therapy is initiated.

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Symptoms in disease monitoring

Monitoring symptoms can help to monitor the course of a disease. If changes in the symptoms are detected, this can allow conclusions to be drawn about the disease. This information is particularly important for those treating the patient. This is because it allows them to draw conclusions about the progression or decline of a disease and react accordingly.

By monitoring symptoms and signals from the body, it is also possible to observe whether a therapy is working. If the symptoms improve or disappear, this is a sign that a treatment is working.

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Documenting symptoms

Documenting the body's signs comes with a number of benefits. These include improved diagnosis and more efficient communication with the doctor, as sufferers can describe exactly when and what symptoms occurred. Regular recording also allows changes or early changes to be recognised, which enables earlier medical care.

The structured recording of symptoms can also increase personal awareness of one's own state of health and reveal connections between symptoms and influencing factors such as lifestyle, diet and stress.

When documenting symptoms, the following should be described as precisely as possible

• which complaint occurs (e.g. pain, tingling, visual disturbances)
• where it occurs (e.g. upper abdomen, right lower back, calf, right side of forehead)
• how it feels and (e.g. sharp, dull, pulsating)
• how strong it is, e.g. on a scale of 1-10.

A health diary can be used for documentation. Depending on the symptom, specific diaries such as a pain diary or a fever diary can also be used. Depending on the illness, doctors often use specific questionnaires, which can also be used to document symptoms in a targeted manner.

However, excessive preoccupation with symptom documentation (so-called ‘overtracking’) can also harbour the risk of an unbalanced focus on negative sensations, which causes additional stress. It is important to use tracking as a helpful tool without allowing it to become the sole focus of everyday life.