Comment by ajb

Saying to a patient "you have X" can communicate three different things:

- a casual diagnosis: your problem is caused by C

- a syndrome: you have this collection of symptoms which often appear together, we don't know what causes it, we may have some treatments that can help.

The difference between these two is often not communicated well, but they are valid diagnostic categories.

There is a bigger problem with the third one:

- we have done some investigation and don't think further investigation is worth doing.

This may be a correct judgment, or it may not. But it is not a property of the patient. Essentialising it to the patient is incorrect and potentially dangerous. Especially as, it's rarely the case that they've "looked at everything under the sun". There are many reasons for stopping before that - some of them valid, but some not.