Healthy Skepticism Library item: 19754

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Croft P
Constructing RSI: Belief and Desire
BMJ 2004 Feb 7; 328:(354):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC338153/

Abstract:

A Dallas taxi driver once helpfully informed me that 90% of Americans were sick. He explained that it was all down to liver disease and that the medicine in the boot of his car was going to cure the nation. His statistics were not outrageous. Physical symptoms are certainly common in the general population, but their persistence, the distress that they cause, and their significance to the individual are not necessarily explained by underlying disease.​