spectrum disorder

plural spectrum disorders

1. human sciencesA physiological or psychological disorder which may take any of a range of forms or be indicated by any of a range of symptoms.

   However, there is no reliable evidence on the incidence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in the United Kingdom.

   2007 June 9, Lisa Hitchen, “Doctors advise women not to drink alcohol during pregnancy”, in British Medical Journal, volume 334, number 7605, page 1186

   2 more examples

   Today, many researchers believe that compulsive buying should be considered as exhibiting elements of both obsessive-compulsive and impulse-control disorders, calling this theory obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder.

   2008 Dec., Nancy M. Ridgway at al., "Doctors advise women not to drink alcohol during pregnancy," vol. 35, no. 4, p. 623

   [T]he proportion of relatives shown as affected with schizophrenia actually consists of definite plus uncertain diagnoses of schizophrenia plus a hard-to-define category of "schizophrenia spectrum disorder".

   1975, R. N. Curnow, Charles Smith, “Multifactorial Models for Familial Diseases in Man”, in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A, volume 138, number 2, page 165