Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and other iatrogenic diagnostic algorithms. Do some labels escalate illness in vulnerable patients?

Postgrad Med. 1997 Aug;102(2):161-2, 165-6, 171-2 passim. doi: 10.3810/pgm.1997.08.284.

Abstract

Contemporary medicine has the sophistication to identify the clinical settings in which the hunt for a diagnosis can be harmful to a patient's health. Which patients are best served by a prolonged search for a cause? Why has the disease-illness paradigm backfired for so many patients? Dr Hadler challenges readers to look at the difficult questions linked with diagnostic labels that might teach patients to stay sick.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Colonic Diseases, Functional / diagnosis
  • Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic* / diagnosis
  • Fibromyalgia* / diagnosis
  • Fibromyalgia* / psychology
  • Humans
  • Iatrogenic Disease
  • Philosophy, Medical
  • Sick Role*
  • Somatoform Disorders / diagnosis