Abstract

It is a truism that medical students, junior doctors, and even some senior ones may develop symptoms that they interpret (usually falsely) as indicative of illness within their own area of study or expertise. But I think that neurological symptoms (not necessarily disease) are virtually ubiquitous, and minor neurological disease very common and often undiagnosed, which makes this column quite such fascinating reading. My own most troublesome ‘neurological’ problem has been degenerative lumbar spine disease, which Carl Counsell recently described so eloquently (Counsell 2002). However, I have also over the years experienced three other neurological disorders – although I think only the third is truly a disease state. Some of you may have already diagnosed hypochondriasis in a feeble, predisposed mind (and that’s just those of you who know me). Yet the first two syndromes occurred long before I knew what they were, and certainly long before I chose neurology as