It had been Hammer giving him the ultimatum about his weight, and she halfway believed that what he suffered from now was no coincidence, but a functional illness.

'Functional illness.'

Two day hospitals are provided to cater for the elderly mentally ill, one for those with functional illnesses and one for those with dementia.

However, the provision of such a small resource on a cost-effective basis is open to debate, particularly when small facilities would be required for those with functional illness, physical illness and social problems.

Very early in his career - a week after the publication of On the Origin of Species - Crichton-Browne stressed the importance of psychiatric disorders in childhood and, much later, he was to emphasise the distinction between organic and functional illness in the elderly.

The HPA axis is involved in the neurobiology of mood disorders and functional illnesses, including anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, insomnia, posttraumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, major depressive disorder, burnout, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and alcoholism.