decompensate
verbUK /diːˈkɒmpɛnseɪt/
Etymology From de- + compensate.
1
Human sciences, Medicine, Psychology, Sciences To deteriorate in function due to an inability to invoke normal defensive mechanisms that compensate for ailments and other stresses.
Of a bodily organ or mental state
- 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:
- 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:
- Related terms
- decompensation