What is the medical meaning of "course"?

Question

From the Cambridge Dictionary

Meaning of course: the often gradual development of something, or the way something happens, or a way of doing something

Did the scandal have any effect on the course of the election?

From a post

Although there is some evidence that older people might have a poorer course of major depressive disorder (MDD) than younger or middle-aged people, and that age-related course differences might affect the optimisation of MDD treatment, large-scale studies with a broad age range, including consistent course assessments, are needed to properly address this issue.

Is the word "course" here a medical term or just a plain English explained at the beginning?

Answer 1

It identifies the way a disorder manifests itself, rather than paying attention to other attributes, such as severity of the symptom.

course (noun): the way in which something progresses or develops.

(Bing)

A good use of the word in medical terms is here:

The course of Major Depression, Recurrent varies across individuals. Some people have isolated depressive episodes that are separated by many years during which mood is normal, whereas other individuals experience clusters of major depressive episodes that occur closely together in time. Still other people with Major Depression experience increasingly frequent episodes as they grow older.

from

• https://www.mentalhelp.net/depression/the-course-of-depression/

(paragraph 4)