1. The turning point in the course of a disease, when it becomes clear whether the patient will recover or die.
2. A transition for better or for worse in the course of a disease; usually, indicated by a significant change in the intensity of signs and symptoms.
3. A turning point in the course of anything; a decisive or crucial time, stage, or event; for example, regarding events affecting the emotional state of a person after a death or divorce which can result in personality growth or personality disorganization.
4. A time of great danger or trouble, whose outcome decides whether possible bad consequences will follow.
5. Etymology: from Greek krisis, "turning point in a disease" (used as such by Hippocrates and Galen); literally, "judgment" from krinein, "to separate, to decide, to judge".

Severe stomach pain resulting from several possible causes: Abdominal crisis usually refers to pain which is produced by sickle cell anemia, bowel obstruction and / or perforation, hemorrhage, ectopic pregnancy, among other sicknesses.

The syndrome which accompanies the acute onset or aggravation of Addison's disease or other forms of adrenal insufficiency, resulting in lethargy, fever, vascular collapse, and often death.

The physiological and emotional changes which occur during teenage years and constitute a sudden demand on the ego for any unusual adaptational responses.

A severe attack of asthma.

1. A sudden worsening of the clinical state of an infant or child with celiac disease (gluten enteropathy) resulting from the ingestion of wheat germ-containing food, even in minute amounts, in those who are in the process of recovery on a gluten-free diet.
2. The rapid onset of malnutrition in celiac (abdominal) disease with severe watery diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, and acidosis.

Vigorous antibiotic and nutritional therapy is required.

A short-term intense therapy which emphasizes the identification of the circumstances that trigger an emotional trauma: "The emphasis is on neutralizing the trauma and mobilizing coping skills which will treat the crisis and make the situation as good as or better than the pre-crisis situation or condition."

In psychiatry, the development of effective adaptive and coping methods to resolve a mental or emotional crisis.

A framework which is developed for defining and explaining the circumstances that take place when people are confronted with problems which appear to be impossible to solve.

A group trained in emergency medical treatment and in various methods for rendering psychiatric therapeutic assistance to a person or group of patients during a period of crisis; especially, instances involving suicide attempts or drug abuse.

The main objectives of such crisis assistance procedures are to help people cope with their current problems and to offer guidance and support for long-term therapies.

When a unit of government has an excess of government spending over income and is unable to borrow to finance it: For a national government, a fiscal crisis is most likely a result of a large accumulated debt together with doubts about its ability or willingness to pay back that debt.

A severe pain in the liver.

A sudden increase of blood pressure to a very high level associated with vomiting, severe headache, transient blindness, and the rapid deterioration of renal (kidney) function.

A hysterical (excessive or uncontrollable emotion) attack, fit, or convulsion.

The sudden onset of severe ocular pain and photophobia.

Acute vomiting, dehydration, hypertension, and sudden death as a result of the acute loss of sodium which may be caused by adrenal hyperplasia, salt-losing nephritis, or gastrointestinal disease.

A complication that may take place after thyroidectomy, or before or during other surgical procedures where even mild hyperthyroidism is present.

It is characterized by tachycardia (fast-heart beat), a high temperature, nervousness, and occasionally delirium.

A temperature drop accompanied by a fall in the pulse rate.

Paroxysmal attack of bladder pain, with difficulty in urination, seen in tabes dorsalis.

Severe, recurring pains as the result of the degeneration of the spinal cord in anyone who has been suffering from syphilis: Such a visceral crisis is a complication which affects the spinal cord, causing abnormalities of sensations; sharp pains, incoordination, and incontinence; which appear several years after the infection.

Another version that describes the terrible conditions of this visceral crisis also involves what is known as tabes dorsalis which includes the lightning-like pain attacks, ataxia (wobbliness), deterioration of the nerves to the eyes (the optic nerves) leading to blindness, urinary incontinence, loss of the sense of one's physical balance, and the degeneration of the joints or the inability to feel pain because of nerve damage.