In an era of HIV, West Nile Virus, lurking cancers, chest pains which could be the lethal heart attack; and of course, the story of aunt Bertha who had headaches for thirty years and (wouldn’t you know it) developed a brain tumor at age ninety six, it is not difficult to understand why patients worry. It is also easy to see why doctors are afraid to say those dangerous (clinically and medical-legally) words, “Madam, you have nothing wrong with you.” Actually, the patient does have something wrong but it is not a routine blood and guts problem. It is rather closer to a psychiatric disorder in this realm of definite medical uncertainty. As to how common such disorders are, it is estimated that in an average day, every physician see one patient, who to varying degrees, is very much like my Mrs. M. Patients with depression, anxiety, and obsessive- compulsive disorder will complain of chest pain, headaches, numbness of an extremity as a manifestation of their underlying emotional disorder. Physicians are faced with such matters daily and must do as much as they believe necessary and prudent to exclude important disorders as heart disease and true neurological diseases before considering the correct, albeit less life-threatening emotional disorders. There are the true psychopathologic patients who make up or exaggerate symptoms for a specific gain (i.e. the malingerer). These poor folks go through all kinds of tests and surgical procedures for sympathy (ill health is a way of life) or for financial gain (i.e. disability claims or auto accident fraud). The most dramatic form of the psychosis of non-organic disease is known as Munchausen Syndrome; in this disorder, patients will actually do harm to themselves and feign illness. They will scare the life out of emergency room personnel as they present with life threatening, self-induced symptoms. One of my patients drank hydrochloric acid and came to the ER vomiting blood and experiencing agonizing chest pain. These patients get my diagnosis of being “plain crazy.” What’s the point of all this? We are in an era of medicine in which we are empowered to make spectacular diagnoses. Tests are abundant. We are in an era in which there are also new diseases and insidious health threats. We are also in an era in which patients want an answer to everything. Every Monday, at 10:30 am a doctor sees a new patient. Who is behind the door? Doctors make an effort to tell the difference. They are usually right. Patients and society would do well to consider and work with physicians who offer an opinion and care based upon judgments and plans that offer less testing and more understanding.