Two medical disorders that owe their existence to political advocacy: Crack babies (via Reason and Slate ), and Alzheimers .
Crack babies are now not just exploded theory, but unhip and superseded by meth babies.  That decade old Mother Jones article is eloquent on its popularity:

The crack-baby myth was so powerful in part because it had something for everyone, whether one's ideological leanings called for enhancing public programs to meet the crisis, or for punishing the drug-addicted mothers seen as responsible for it.

Eventually it folded in the face of controlled blind trials (grad students observation, not controlled feeding of crack to babies). Alzheimer's, by contrast, has enough clinical evidence to thrive as a disorder, though there's still dispute over where the line should be drawn, and how common or natural are its distinctive postmortem brain plaques, still the only way to diagnose it.

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Should we have a health topic?
Cam Riley: South Sea Republic. Freedom, liberty, equity and an Australian Republic.

Comments
  • cam . # .
    Health topic added: The icon is a choice of the cross, or the winged pin with two snakes which is first in an images.google search on \"health\".

    Why is Alzheimers a result of political advocacy? The aging baby boomers?

    Given that the media and politicians are so hysterical, and attempt to foister that hysteria onto their audience and constituencies I am not suprised.

    I can recall reading a book, ages and ages ago, IIRC was called \"Love Your Disease\". It argued that we give ourselves diseases and conditions so we can survive. Disease is pretty unique in society that you can shirk, be lazy, or avoid doing things by saying your sick. Not wanting to do it, or not being capable of doing it are not excuses, but being sick is.

    cam
  • Baby boomers: All the well known health icons are very religious, aren\'t they?  Makes sense I guess.

    Alzheimers was identified as a syndrome at the start of the 20th century but fell out of favour.  It was revived when baby boomers kept insisting something was wrong with their Dad.

    There was a fantastic essay on the placebo effect on the LRB a while ago, Scrivener\'s Palsy , your book reminds me of that.
  • avocadia . # .
    Caduceus: Religious, yes, but Hermes represents a meme that is kind of appropriate to us.