Signs vs. Symptoms: Understanding the Key Differences

The difference between a sign and a symptom of a disease can be confusing. While the two words seem to be describing the same thing, signs and symptoms have different meanings.

Identification

• Signs are objective while symptoms are subjective, differencebetween.net points out. Signs can be heard, felt or seen. Symptoms cannot be felt by anyone else besides the patient.

Features

• A sign could be a condition like a high temperature, a rapid pulse rate or lesions. A symptom could be fever, chills, aches or itchiness.

Tell the Doctor

• Because symptoms can only be felt by the patient, the patient needs to be very descriptive when telling the doctor about them.

Considerations

• Unlike symptoms, signs can be verified or measured by a doctor. For instance, aches cannot be measured by a doctor, but blood pressure or pulse rate can.

Making the Diagnosis

• Signs can only be diagnosed by a doctor, while anybody can describe or point out the symptoms of the flu, for example. The same symptoms can occur with many different diseases, and only a doctor can identify the signs that narrow the condition down to a particular disease.