By Brian Carnell

Friday, April 12, 2002

The British Medical Journal recently conducted a survey of British doctors about which conditions shoudl be considered diseases and which shoudl be classified as non-diseases. The results did not please some patient advocates.

The BMJ compiled a list of 174 conditions from Gulf War Syndrome to hyperactivity and asked doctors whether or not they thoguht the condition was a disease or not.

The top 10 list of conditions that doctors said were not diseases included aging, work-related problems, boredom, bags under the eyes, ignornace, baldness, freckles, big ears, greying hair and ugliness.

NOthing too contorversial here, but other conditions that were deemed non-diseases upset some patient advocates. Thirteen percent of the physicians, for exmaple, said Chronic fatigue syndrome and menopause were both non-diseases. Seven percent would reclassify both GUlf War Syndrome and premenstrual syndrome as nondiseases.

Of course, just because something is not a disease does not mean it does not seriously affect a person's health, but rather the BMJ's Richard Smith said the poll was meant to highlight the tendency to label every medical condition as a disease. Smith told the Daily Telegraph,

We are not suggesting that the suffering of peopel with 'non-diseases' is notgenuine. But everything is to be gained and nothing lost by raising consciousness about hte slipperiness of the concept of disease. To have your condition labelled as a 'disease' may bring benefit, but the diagnosis may also create problems. You may be denied insurance, a mortgage, and employment.

Mike Stone, the chief executive of the Patients' Association replied that the poll might weaken people's faith in their doctors, presumably because they might fear that doctors would be unwilling to diagnose them as having some particular disease -- which sort of begs the whole point made by Richard Smith.

Obesity and ME are not diseases, say doctors. Sarah Womack, The Daily Telegraph, April 11, 2002.

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