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I know this is a few years too late, but you should read, but here is a short letter that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1962: "On the Distinction Between Disease and Disorder Ashley Montagu, Ph.D., Princeton, N.J. The concepts and the terms "disease" and "disorder" have long been used synonymously and interchangeably both in medicine and in common parlance. It seems that it would constitute a contribution to greater clarity of thought and practice were these two concepts recognized for what they are, as referring to 2 quite different colligations of conditions. To begin with the definition of these two orders of conditions: Disease is an acquired morbid change in any tissue or tissue of an organism, or in an organism as a whole, of specific microorganismal causation with characteristic symptoms. Disorder is a disturbance of structure or function or both due to a genetic or embryological failure in development or as the result of exogenous factors, such as certain chemical substances, injury, or disease. It may be inborn or acquired. The difference between the concept of disease and that of disorder implied in these definitions lies in the fact that disease is conceived as being limited to malfunctioning of the organism initiated and maintained by an infectious process. A disorder may or may not be initiated by an infectious process, but, however initiated, the malfunctioning is not maintained by an infectious process. A disorder may be the result of an infectious process, remain¬ ing long after the infection has ceased. A disorder may also be the result of a noninfectious process, such as an inborn error of metabolism due to some enzymatic deficiency, or to a chromosomal abnor¬ mality. In this class of conditions the disorder' is maintained by a noninfectious derangement of chemical conditions. Diabetes mellitus is a disorder, not a disease, because it is neither initiated nor maintained by an infectious process but by a physio¬ logical failure of the pancreas. What is the disorder in diabetes? Is it the failure of the pancreas to secrête a sufficient amount of insulin or is it the dis¬ tressing syndrome of symptoms to which it gives rise? The answer, surely, is that it is each and both. A prediabetic may show no symptoms whatever, but in most cases the proper tests will show that the disorder is present. Overt symptoms may not devel¬ op for several years. The pancreatic deficiency rep¬ resents the physiological disorder, which may or may not have a genetic basis; the overt, visible, ex¬ pression of the physiological disorder, resulting in the typical symptoms of diabetes, is the phenotypic disorder. Since the term phenotype is generally taken to mean the visible expression of the geno¬ type, it may be preferable to speak simply of overt disorder, in order to distinguish it from the physio¬ logical or covert disorder. As we enter upon the second half of the 20th century it will become necessary to distinguish sharply and clearly between malfunction and maldevelopment due to hereditary conditions, chromo¬ somal abnormalities, infections, and environmental conditions. Each of these distinctions should be clearly recognized in describing any condition of the organism in which they are involved. Down's syndrome (mongolism) is not a disease; it is a dis¬ order or a syndrome, just as are Klinefelter's or Turner's syndromes. All malfunctioning and maldevelopment due to genetic factors and chromo¬ somal abnormalities are disorders or syndromes, not diseases. The malfunctioning resulting from an infarct of the myocardium is a disorder, not a dis¬ ease, even though the changes leading to the infarct may have had an infectious origin. Active tubercu¬ losis is a disease, but long after the disease has be¬ come inactive a disorder may remain." The only thing I might add to this is that a disease, being something infectious, is something that can be cured while a disorder cannot be cured. You might be able to minimize the negative consequences of a disorder but the condition itself will always remain. The interchangeable use of disease and disorder is not only inaccurate but harmful. For example, the entire organization of Autism Speaks is based on finding a "cure" for autism. However, since autism is not a disease, finding a "cure" is an impossibility. Instead of researching into the best ways to understand and accommodate people with autism, we are telling them that there is something wrong with them, that they need to be more "normal," and we are trying to force them to function in environments that they are not suited for.