Indeed. "Syndromes" are very hard because there's no real way to test for them. Once there is, the condition can be classified as a disease (or whatever) and

Indeed. "Syndromes" are very hard because there's no real way to test for them. Once there is, the condition can be classified as a disease (or whatever) and progress can be made. It's very hard to make progress without being able to test well. And that is true across disciplines (I'm looking at you, Education). I think in the early days there was a lot of initial skepticism because, if there were real cases they were diluted by people complaining to their (chronically tired, overworked and stressed) doctors that they were tired. Doctors thoughts were, "welcome to the club." And there is a certain subset of the population who complain constantly about medical conditions- indeed it is the foundation of most conversation it seems- so with no good way to conclusively test for the condition it was often dismissed.