The word 'etiology' is correct and can be used in written English.
It is used to refer to the cause or origin of a disease or condition. An example sentence could be: "The etiology of the heart condition remains unknown."
The sexually transmitted diseases syphilis and gonorrhea are further examples of diseases classified by etiology.
Psychiatrists first used the term neurosis in the mid-19th century to categorize symptoms thought to be neurological in origin; the prefix "psycho-" was added some decades later when it became clear that mental and emotional factors were important in the etiology of these disorders.
That is, knowing what symptoms correspond to each disease is generally more important than understanding disease etiology.
This etiology is supported by evidence that drugs that restore chemical imbalances in the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain effectively mitigate symptoms of depression.
In the first half of the 20th century, theories of the etiology of mental disorders, especially of neuroses and personality disorders, were dominated in the United States by Freudian psychoanalysis and the derivative theories of the post-Freudians (see Freud, Sigmund).
These categories are divided on the basis of the presumed etiology of the disease.
The etiology of this condition is tied to the "near reflex," which has two main components.
In a few instances the discovery of the etiology of a disease represents the individual achievement of a solitary investigator who may have worked many years on the problem; the story of Louis Pasteur and the discovery of the cause of anthrax is a classic example.
In the past the postmortem study of the brain revealed information upon which great advances in understanding the etiology of neurological and some mental disorders were based, leading to the German psychiatrist Wilhelm Griesinger's postulate: "all mental illness is disease of the brain".
That is, rather than stressing the corrupting initiative of adults in the etiology of neuroses, Freud concluded that the fantasies and yearnings of the child were at the root of later conflict.
Charcot's demonstration of a link between hysterical symptoms, such as paralysis of a limb, and hypnotic suggestion implied the power of mental states rather than nerves in the etiology of disease.
