one word for cure worse than disease

[Archived Topic]

I am looking for a word (English or Latin)which means
the cure is worse than the disease.

Submitted by LEE HAWORTH (sarasota - U.S.A.)

[Archived Reply]

In Britain, we were accustomed to allude to this phenomenenon as a 'maggiethatcher' for many years.

Reply from Erik Kowal (Reading - England)

[Archived Reply]

Off the top of my head, I would think that "Iatropic" or "Iatropism" would come close to fitting your criterion.

Reply from Dave Beckwith (Charlotte - U.S.A.)

[Archived Reply]

If any terms for this concept really do exist, I don’t know of them. But you could do worse than resort to these impressively learned-sounding neologisms which actually comprise the elements "bad + doctor(ing) + doing/making":

Greek root: Kakiat'rogen (n.), kakiatrogen'ic (adj.)

Latin root: No'cimedicinofa'cient (n. & adj.)

The apostrophes are included in order to mark the stressed syllables, which immediately precede the apostrophes.

These expressions still don’t quite convey the sense of the cure being worse than the disease. Unfortunately I think it would be extremely hard, not to say impossible, to neologise such a complex idea in its entirety and still end up with a usably brief single word. So for the time being, a ‘maggiethatcher’ may still be the best shorthand term available. (Beware, this too is a neologism!)

Reply from Erik Kowal (Reading - England)

[The Old Professor]

The word you are looking for is iatrogenic. One example of an iatrogenic disease can be found in the book Inventing the Aids Virus by Peter Duesberg, pp 11-23. Duesberg describes how the drug clioquinol which was used to treat SMON was toxic rather than remedial.

[tony h]

An interesting word that I had not heard before.

Welcome The Old Professor. As a matter of interest what do you profess?