iatrogenic

A condition induced internally by a practitioner, not from external factors. Something which is created by ourselves, a contractor, or an internal service organization, making things worse instead of helping or making more efficient. Something that's done internally, supposedly within span of control and with a common mission, that works against a solution instead of towards it. The term is co-opted from medicine, where it means a condition induced by a physician.

The outage was iatrogenic in that it was nothing external to the company. The IT department itself caused it by not duplicating existing parameters when it replaced the firewall.

50👍 1👎

iatrogenic addiction

addiction caused by medical treatment (e.g., liberal use of opiate analgesics in a hospital setting or by a physician that leads to opiate addiction).

I went in for back surgery and they kept giving me morphine. Now that I was sent home they gave me a prescription for OxyContin. I just can't seem to stop taking them. Now my doctor says that I have iatrogenic addiction. WTF am I supposed to do now?

6👍 3👎