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Psychology vocabulary · Assessment and Diagnosis

Comorbidity

Meaning in psychology, with examples

/ˌkəʊmɔːˈbɪdəti/nounCommon term

In psychology, comorbidity means: The presence of two or more disorders in the same person at the same time, such as depression together with an anxiety disorder.

In Turkish: eş tanı, komorbidite, eşlik eden bozukluk

How it is used

Very common in clinical research and case reports. The adjective is comorbid: comorbid anxiety, comorbid with ADHD. High comorbidity rates are one reason clinicians rely on case formulation rather than diagnosis alone.

Example sentences

  1. Comorbidity between depression and anxiety is the rule rather than the exception.

  2. Patients with substance use problems were excluded because of high comorbidity.

Common collocations

  • high comorbidity
  • psychiatric comorbidity
  • comorbid with
  • comorbid conditions
  • diagnosisThe process of identifying which mental or physical condition explains a person's difficulties, or the name of the condition that is identified.
  • DSM-5Short for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition: the American Psychiatric Association's classification of mental disorders and their diagnostic criteria.
  • case formulationA shared, working explanation of how a client's problems developed and what keeps them going, built from the assessment and used to plan therapy.
  • anxietyA feeling of worry, tension or fear about something that might happen, often with physical signs such as a fast heartbeat; when intense and lasting, it can be part of a disorder.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Assessment and Diagnosis

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.