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Previous Volume 328:218 January 21, 1993 Number 3 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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By Lynn Payer. 292 pp. New York, John Wiley, 1992. $22.95. ISBN 0-471-54385-3.

The worried well present a treatment dilemma in our technology-oriented medical system. Lynn Payer, author of Disease-Mongers, accuses "doctors, drug companies, and insurers" of exploiting patients' fears for financial profit. Her book, aimed at a lay audience, exposes what she calls "disease-mongering," the process of convincing people who are well, or at least asymptomatic, that they require medical attention. Her chapter titles are a litany of indictments: "The Medicalization of Menopause," "The Diseasing of Risk Factors," "Creating Cardiac Cripples." Although she admits that medical journalists and even patients themselves have a role in this process, her subtitle reveals her bias.

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