decompensate

present singular third person decompensates · participle present decompensating · participle past decompensated · past decompensated

1. human sciencesTo deteriorate in function due to an inability to invoke normal defensive mechanisms that compensate for ailments and other stresses.

   The infant whose heart is decompensating has a rapid pulse, rapid respirations, and respiratory distress.

   1967, Virginia Pidgeon, “The Infant with Congenital Heart Disease”, in The American Journal of Nursing, volume 67, number 2, page 291

   1 more example

   In some cases, the fragile individual, overwhelmed by the implicit demands and expectations for sociability, coherence, and "constructive" behavior, rapidly decompensates, taking flight into psychosis or protective withdrawal.

   1983, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, “A Proposal for the Aftercare of Chronic Psychiatric Patients”, in Medical Anthropology Quarterly, volume 14, number 2, pages 11–12