Originally Posted by echoes long ago

the diagnosis they use when they believe something is all in your head and it is causing the symptoms you have is called conversion disorder in the category of somatoform disorders. it is diagnosed much more often in the south than anywhere else in the united states. i suspect that the diagnosis is often used in cases of people with peripheral neuropathy by doctors who are less than adequately knowldegable about the disease or who are too lazy to do the required testing to actually find the cause. much as alcoholism is quickly used by some doctors as a cause for PN without proper testing if that is in the medical history.