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Hello Listers,

I've just come from the Mayo Clinic Website article on hypochondria. I'd
like to submit this excerpt to you readers for your comments:

Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of hypochondria include:

  - 1. Excessive fear or anxiety about having a particular disease or
  condition
  - 2. Worry that minor symptoms mean you have a serious illness
  - 3. Seeking repeated medical exams or consultations
  - 4. "Doctor shopping," or frequently switching doctors
  - 5. Frustration with doctors or medical care
  - 6. Strained social relationships
  - 7. Obsessive health research
  - 8. Emotional distress
  - 9.Frequent checking of your body for problems, such as lumps or sores
  - 10. Frequent checking of vital signs, such as pulse or blood pressure
  - 11. Inability to be reassured by medical exams
  - 12. Thinking you have a disease after reading or hearing about it
  - 13. Avoidance of situations that make you feel anxious, such as being
  in a hospital

 *Different intensities of hypochondria
*Hypochondria can vary in intensity. When you have hypochondria, you may be
absolutely sure that you have a certain disease, and getting a diagnosis
becomes your primary focus in life. You visit numerous doctors and
specialists. If one doctor tells you that you aren't sick, you don't believe
it and seek out other opinions. You may seek numerous tests, such as
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), echocardiograms or even exploratory
surgery. You may think that the lack of a diagnosis means you're getting
poor medical care. You may relentlessly talk about your symptoms or
suspected diseases with family and friends. ...Hypochondria occurs about
equally in men and women. It can develop at any age, even in children, but
it most often begins in early adulthood. Current estimates suggest that 1 to
5 percent of the population has hypochondria.

****end of reference****

I'm interested in what our celiac population has gone through. Before my
diagnosis of celiac disease, after seeing 24 doctors in 13 years since onset
of severe symptoms, I am guilty of symptoms numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
11, and 13. I'm guessing that quite qualifies me as a hypochondriac until,
of course, I was finally diagnosed with celiac and Graves' disease.

It would seem the label of hypochondria presents us with a circular logical
entanglement. The patient who suffers undiagnosed is indistiguishable from a
patient who suffers based purely on psychological pathology with no somatic
involvement. Where a diagnosis of hypochondria may very well satisfy a
physician, it does the majority of his patients a terrible injustice.

If, as the Mayo site suggests, hypochondria occurs at a rate of between one
and five percent, and celiac disease and thyroid disease occurs at a rate of
one and ten percents respectively, that pretty much takes care of the
incidence of hypochondria in the general population. Add to the celiacs and
thyroid patients people with the very difficult to diagnose multiple
schlerosis and the dozens of other autoimmune diseases less familiar to the
family practitioner, I believe we can easily account for the full suspected
five percent.

I wonder whether our own esteemed Joseph Murray might confer with someone in
the Dept. of Psychiatry to shine light on this perception of the medical
community toward people they can't easily diagnose.

I'm compiling a list of patients who have been accused or treated as if they
were hypochondriac for an article. Please relate to me your stories.



-- 
Kit Kellison
314-600-5254
co-owner, Off Broadway
www.offbroadwaystl.com
Photography:
www.thepinhole.zenfolio.com

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