Fad Diagnoses

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Fad Diagnoses

• Or fashionable labels

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Recipe for a New Fad Disease

• Pick any symptoms -- the more common the better.
• Pick any disease -- real or invented. (Real
  diseases have more potential for confusion
  because their existence can't be denied.)
• Assign lots of symptoms to the disease.
• Say that millions of undiagnosed people suffer
  from it.
• Pick a few treatments -- Including supplements
  will enable health food stores and others to get
  in on the action.

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(No Transcript)
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Real or Spurious ?

• Real
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Attention Deficit syndromes
• Food allergies
• Hypoglycaemia

• Spurious
• Sick Building syndrome
• Multiple chemical sensitivity
• Gulf war syndrome
• Sick building syndrome

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Why promote one?

• Boredom
• Low professional esteem
• Paranormal tendencies
• Paranoid mental state
• Reality shock
• Beliefs encroachment

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Why promote one?

• The profit motive
• The prophet motive
• Psychopathic tendencies
• The conversion phenomenon