Nosology (from Ancient Greek νόσος (nosos) 'disease' and -λογία (-logia) 'study of') is the branch of medical science that deals with the classification of diseases.
This leads to a branching differentiation in which a clinical syndrome (pattern of signs and symptoms) can come to be understood as a nonspecific finding shared by a group of disease entities or endotypes.
[citation needed] The most known coding system is the World Health Organization ICD-Series, but there are other accepted classifications like DOCLE, NANDA or SNOMED.
[citation needed] In a wide sense, nosology deals not only with diseases, but with any kind of medical condition, like injuries, lesions or disorders.
[9] Mental disorders were classified into categories like mania and paranoia by Hippocrates,[10] and this system was utilized by later authors like Najib ad-Din Samarqandi.
Early attempts to develop more comprehensive approaches to the classification of diseases were made by Jean Fernel in the 16th century.
[13] In the 18th century, the taxonomist Carl Linnaeus, Francois Boissier de Sauvages, and psychiatrist Philippe Pinel developed an early classification of physical illnesses.
Bertillon's work, classifying causes of death, was a precursor of the modern code system, the International Classification of Diseases.