---
title: "List of diagnoses characterized as pseudoscience"
chunk: 1/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:28:30.212297+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Many proposed diseases and diagnoses are rejected by mainstream medical consensus and are associated with pseudoscience due to a lack of scientific evidence for their existence, proposed mechanism or action, or manifestation that cannot be explained by something else.

== Definition ==
Pseudoscientific diseases are not defined using objective criteria. Such diseases cannot achieve, and perhaps do not seek, medical recognition. Pseudoscience rejects empirical methodology.
Other conditions may be rejected or contested by orthodox medicine, but are not necessarily associated with pseudoscience. Diagnostic criteria for some of these conditions may be vague, over-inclusive, or otherwise ill-defined. Although the evidence for the disease may be contested or lacking, the justification for these diagnoses is nevertheless empirical and therefore amenable to scientific investigation, at least in theory.
In some cases, patients are exhibiting genuine signs and symptoms but the explanation or diagnosis for their distress is disputed or inaccurate.
Examples of conditions that are not necessarily pseudoscientific include:

Conditions determined to be somatic in nature, including mass psychogenic illnesses.
Medicalized conditions that are not pathogenic in nature, such as aging, childbirth, pregnancy, sexual addiction,  baldness, jet lag, and halitosis.
Conditions that are not widely recognized, about which there is an ongoing debate within the scientific and medical literature.
Functional disorders are a set of conditions that cannot be explained by structural or biochemical abnormalities. These raise challenges around diagnosis and treatment, with debate around whether they are psychogenic. They often present with non-specific symptoms that are consistent with multiple causes.