{{Short description|Medical condition}} {{More citations needed|article|date=September 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}} In medicine, '''decompensation''' is the functional deterioration of a structure or system that had been previously working with the help of compensation. Decompensation may occur due to fatigue, stress, illness, or old age. When a system is "compensated", it is able to function despite stressors or defects. Decompensation describes an inability to compensate for these deficiencies. It is a general term commonly used in medicine to describe a variety of situations.
== Medical term== For example, ''cardiac decompensation'' may refer to the failure of the heart to maintain adequate blood circulation, after long-standing (previously compensated) vascular disease (see heart failure). Short-term treatment of cardiac decompensation can be achieved through administration of dobutamine, resulting in an increase in heart contractility via an inotropic effect.<ref name=acute>{{cite journal|title=Acute Decompensated Heart Failure|pmc=2801958 |year=2009|journal=Texas Heart Institute Journal|last1=Joseph|display-authors=etal|pmid=20069075|volume=36|issue=6 |pages=510–20}}</ref>
Kidney failure can also occur following a slow degradation of kidney function due to an underlying untreated illness; the symptoms of the latter can then become much more severe due to the lack of efficient compensation by the kidney.{{cn|date=October 2025}}
Some of the signs of chronic liver disease detectable on clinical examination are associated with decompensation.{{cn|date=October 2025}}
== Psychology == In psychology, the term refers to an individual's loss of healthy defense mechanisms in response to stress, resulting in personality disturbance or psychological imbalance.<ref name=Tamporo2011>{{cite book |first1=Carol D | last1=Tamparo |first2=Marcia A | last2=Lewis |title=Diseases of the Human Body|publisher=F.A. Davis Company|year=2011 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Hdc-AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA527&q=%22inability%20to%20maintain%20defense%20mechanisms%20in%20response%20to%20stress%22%20%22resulting%20in%20personality%20disturbance%20or%20psychological%20imbalance%22 527] |isbn=978-0803625051}}</ref><ref name=freedict>{{cite web|title=Free Dictionary|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/decompensate|website=Free Dictionary|accessdate=29 August 2015}}</ref><ref name=Millon2011>{{cite book |first=Theodore | last=Millon|title=Disorders of Personality:Introducing a DSM / ICD Spectrum from Normal to Abnormal 3rd Edition|publisher=Wiley|year=2011 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-u5lAsunPu0C&pg=PA407&q=millon%20persecutory%20delusion%20decompensation%20%22Under%20conditions%20of%20unrelieved%20adversity%20and%20failure%22 407–408] |isbn=978-0470040935}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == {{wiktionary}} *[http://allpsych.com/psychology101/defenses.html Heffner, C.L. (2001). Psychology 101.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110303220344/http://allpsych.com/psychology101/defenses.html |date=3 March 2011 }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080706122739/http://mentalhelp.net/psyhelp/chap5/chap5j.htm Tucker-Ladd, C.E. (1996–2000). Psychological Self-Help.]
Category:Psychoanalytic terminology Category:Medical terminology Category:Psychopathology Category:Psychiatry