> “That’s a made-up disease,” she recalls the doctor saying. This is an unfortunate consequence of physicians treating many patients with underlying psychiatr

> “That’s a made-up disease,” she recalls the doctor saying. This is an unfortunate consequence of physicians treating many patients with underlying psychiatric problems. They want a diagnosis (or in some cases are drug-seeking) and they leverage these syndromes in order to get the attention or drugs they're after. The syndromes are poorly understood and are only relevant if you can rule out several other possible explanations using tests. If a physician treats 100 patients claiming to suffer from $SUPER_RARE_SYNDROME maybe ninety nine have a history of claiming other unique diseases. It's too easy to sweep the level-headed patients in with the crackpots. "House, M.D." was an interesting and compelling drama but there's no way you could devote the kind of time to investigate interesting cases like that.