Cause is used with these nouns as the subject:
earthquake, explosion, factor, flood, fluctuation, gene, illness, imbalance, incident, infection, injury, movement, mutation, parasite, shortage, stress, virus

Cause is used with these nouns as the object:
abscess, accident, acne, addiction, agony, ailment, alarm, allergy, alteration, amusement, anarchy, anger, anguish, annoyance, antagonism, anxiety, apprehension, argument, attack, backlash, bankruptcy, bitterness, blast, bleeding, blockage, bloodshed, boom, bother, breach, breakdown, breakup, build-up, burn, cancellation, cancer, casualty, cataract, catastrophe, change, chaos, closure, colic, collapse, collision, comment, commotion, complication, concern, conflict, confusion, congestion, consternation, constipation, contamination, controversy, convulsion, corrosion, crash, crime, crisis, damage, danger, death, decay, decline, decrease, defect, deficiency, deformity, dehydration, delay, demise, depletion, depression, destruction, deterioration, devastation, diarrhoea, difficulty, disability, disagreement, disappearance, disaster, discomfort, discontent, discord, disease, disillusionment, dismay, disorder, dispute, disruption, dissatisfaction, dissent, distortion, distraction, distress, disturbance, division, downfall, drop, drought, earthquake, embarrassment, epidemic, erosion, error, eruption, excitement, explosion, extinction, failure, fall, famine, fatigue, fear, feeling, fever, fight, fire, fit, flood, fluctuation, flutter, frenzy, friction, frustration, furore, fury, fuss, grief, hallucination, handicap, hardship, harm, havoc, hazard, headache, hurt, hysteria, illness, imbalance, impotence, incident, inconvenience, increase, inefficiency, inequality, infection, infertility, inflammation, inflation, injury, injustice, instability, irritation, jealousy, landslide, leak, leukaemia, loss, mess, migraine, miscarriage, mischief, misery, mishap, misunderstanding, mortality, mutation, nausea, obstruction, offence, outage, outbreak, outcry, outrage, pain, panic, paralysis, pneumonia, poisoning, pollution, problem, rash, reaction, recession, reduction, relapse, relaxation, resentment, revolt, revulsion, rift, riot, ripple, row, scandal, scare, scene, sensation, shame, shift, shortage, sickness, side effect, smash, sore, sorrow, spasm, speculation, split, stagnation, stink, stir, stoppage, storm, strain, stress, strife, suffering, surprise, suspicion, swelling, symptom, syndrome, tension, tornado, traffic jam, tragedy, transformation, tremor, trouble, turmoil, uncertainty, unease, unemployment, unhappiness, unrest, upheaval, uproar, upset, vandalism, vibration, waste, wave, weakness, wear, worry, wreck