Psychology Wiki
Psychology Wiki

The term Clinical can be used in a number of different but related ways

Severity of a condition[]

A symptom or diagnosis of a disorder is said to be clinical when it significantly impacts on a persons life in term of academic performance, ability to perform the activities of daily living, job performance, social functioning etc etc So for example clinical depression is distingished from depressed mood and clinical linguistics, applied to speech therapy, is diferentiated from everyday linguistics

That done in a clinic[]

People with conditions severe enough to be clinical are then treated in a clinic

  • Clinical (or bedside) medical practice, based on observation and treatment of patients as opposed to theory or basic science
  • Illness, a state of poor health
  • Clinical chemistry, the analysis of bodily fluids
  • Clinical conditions, diagnosed from clinical examination alone
  • Clinical death
  • Clinical formulation, used to communicate a hypothesis; commonly in clinical psychology
  • Clinical governance, a hierarchy of patient care within a health system
  • Clinical series, a case series in which patients receive treatment in a clinic or other medical facility
  • Clinical site, a facility qualified to perform clinical research
  • Clinical trial, a formal research protocol involving patients
  • Clinical medical professions
  • Clinical significance, a conclusion about the effect of a treatment on a patient which improves people's abilities to do everyday tasks etc


See also[]

  • Clinician
  • Incapacity
  • Malingering - where people present with a clinical condition which is not in fact incapacitating them.
  • Self limiting illness - conditions, such as the common cold, with varying impact on peoples functioning where some are more inclined to define themselves as clinically ill while others soldier on. This illness behavior may be more characteristic of some individuals more than others


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