A: The assumption by the treating physician that someone is a self-absorbed neurotic simply because he or she doesn't experience the same symptoms as the patient or simply because the patient is a woman, although a bad idea, is far from rarely made. Patients, particularly women complaining of symptoms of anxiety, panic, depression, PMS, headaches, loss of libido or the diffuse aches and pains of fibromyalgia, are often assumed to be neurotic or hypochondriacal. This kind of psychogenic diagnosis should never be made on the basis of assumption. Nevertheless there has been a historical tendency to make psychological assumptions based on knee-jerk psychological or psychodynamic theories. The fact is that these problems are real, organic and as concrete as angina or cancer.  And mind-sensitive problems ought to be taken far more seriously, although often this is not the case.