And we seek until we find a single simple explanation. Nothing but a single understandable cause, it seems, will relieve the nagging uncertainty about what is going on inside our bodies. I don't think things are this simple, especially inside the nervous system. Let's get back to the words that epidemiologists use to clarify aspects of disease. First, there is the etiology of a disease.
Etiology means cause.
When we are asking what is the cause we are really asking for the etiology. This is the most common idea for an etiology of PPS right now. Another epidemiologist's word, which is a bit more complex in its meaning, is pathogenesis. The pathogenesis of a disease is the mechanism, or steps which occur in the disease manifesting itself. This can be very complicated.