Televisually-Transmitted Disease: Difference between revisions

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Some of these diseases are:

* [[Feel No Pain|Congenital Insensitivity to Pain]]: An extremely rare condition, but irresistible to TV writers for both the gruesome results of not feeling pain and its metaphorical implications. Appeared on both ''[[House (TV)|House]]'', ''[[NCIS]]'' and ''~Grey's Anatomy~'' (and even the Australian hospital drama ''[[All Saints]]''), as well as an entire inbred family on ''[[The X-Files]]''.

* [[Feel No Pain|Congenital Insensitivity to Pain]]: An extremely rare condition, but irresistible to TV writers for both the gruesome results of not feeling pain and its metaphorical implications. Appeared on both ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', ''[[NCIS]]'' and ''~Grey's Anatomy~'' (and even the Australian hospital drama ''[[All Saints]]''), as well as an entire inbred family on ''[[The X-Files]]''.

* Münchhausen's Syndrome: Not that common, but the inherent drama of a patient fooling their doctors has made it a staple of TV. The "by proxy" variant where a parent sickens (or even ''murders'') their children for their doctor's attention, is even rarer, more dramatic, and thus more likely to show up on television.

** The "proxy" variant also makes it useful for criminal shows, as it is not only a disease, but a crime. ''[[Law and Order]]'' has had several, most notably the [[Ripped from the Headlines|Michael Jackson scandal ripoff]] where a woman has her granddaughter pretend to be a victim of said (alleged) molester on top of [[Moral Event Horizon|poisoning her to pretend she has cancer]].

* Infertility: Far more common on TV shows of all kinds than in real life. [[Law of Inverse Fertility|Almost all TV couples who desire a child have trouble conceiving.]] Even young women who don't desire a child have strangely high rates of ectopic pregnancies.

* Genetic mosaicism. Has a variety of implications, ranging from brain problems (''[[House (TV)|House]]'') to multiple sets of DNA making criminal activity tough to catch (''[[CSI]]'').

* Genetic mosaicism. Has a variety of implications, ranging from brain problems (''[[House (TV series)|House]]'') to multiple sets of DNA making criminal activity tough to catch (''[[CSI]]'').

** Examples of gonadal and tissue mosaicism and tetragametic chimeras (people whose bodies are the result of two embryos with different genomes fusing together at an early stage) may be more common than we think, even in humans (primarily because tests are rarely administered for it). Blaschko lines and patches on the skin or [[Mismatched Eyes|eyes of different color]] are a visible indicator of chimerism.

* [[Split Personality|Multiple Personality Disorder]]: In real life this is ''so'' rare some psychiatrists doubt it actually exists at all. Of course, it's all over TV.

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== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[~~Black Jack (Manga)|~~Black Jack]]'' does this, of course, but much like with House, it makes a certain degree of sense - he's an incredibly skilled, incredibly expensive, unlicensed doctor - so he usually only gets hired by someone who've already failed to find relief from the general medical establishment, usually meaning rare and/or incurable diseases. (When [[~~Black Jack (Manga)|~~Black Jack]] is around, you may as well tear the word 'Incurable' out of the dictionary...). Of course, there's always a point when rare becomes just plain made up. Lionitis is rare and highly unlikely; a telekinetic fetiform terratoma is just plain impossible

* ''[[Black Jack]]'' does this, of course, but much like with House, it makes a certain degree of sense - he's an incredibly skilled, incredibly expensive, unlicensed doctor - so he usually only gets hired by someone who've already failed to find relief from the general medical establishment, usually meaning rare and/or incurable diseases. (When [[Black Jack]] is around, you may as well tear the word 'Incurable' out of the dictionary...). Of course, there's always a point when rare becomes just plain made up. Lionitis is rare and highly unlikely; a telekinetic fetiform terratoma is just plain impossible

== Film ==

* ''[[The Sixth Sense]]'' included a suspicion of Münchhausen Syndrome by proxy. Possibly, either the doctor or the writer had been watching too much TV (or both since [[Cameo|they were the same guy]])

* ''[[~~Repo the Genetic Opera|~~Repo! The Genetic Opera]]'' {{spoiler|has Münchhausen by proxy syndrome. Shilo has been told all her life that she inherited the disease that killed her mother--turns out her father just used this as a convenient excuse to poison her, keeping her ill and making sure she could never abandon him.}}

* ''[[Repo! The Genetic Opera]]'' {{spoiler|has Münchhausen by proxy syndrome. Shilo has been told all her life that she inherited the disease that killed her mother--turns out her father just used this as a convenient excuse to poison her, keeping her ill and making sure she could never abandon him.}}

** Not sure that that fits, since {{spoiler|Dad isn't looking for attention - if anything, he wants the opposite.}} No, that's just plain poisoning.

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== Live Action TV ==

* The trope exists, of course, in ''[[House (TV)|House]]'', but it's [[Justified Trope|somewhat excusable]] there: as Dr. House specializes in diagnosing rare diseases, it's not too unreasonable to assume that the patients with more conventional diseases are being treated by more conventional doctors. Also sometimes averted in House's despised clinic hours, where he must treat walk-in patients, and those patients frequently have common diseases, right down to the common cold. Periodically [[Lampshaded]] with the [[Running Gag]], "It's never lupus."

* The trope exists, of course, in ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', but it's [[Justified Trope|somewhat excusable]] there: as Dr. House specializes in diagnosing rare diseases, it's not too unreasonable to assume that the patients with more conventional diseases are being treated by more conventional doctors. Also sometimes averted in House's despised clinic hours, where he must treat walk-in patients, and those patients frequently have common diseases, right down to the common cold. Periodically [[Lampshaded]] with the [[Running Gag]], "It's never lupus."

** House actually references this in the Pilot episode.

{{quote| '''Foreman:''' First year of medical school - if you hear hoofbeats you think horses, not zebras.<br />

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* Played realistically on ''[[Golden Girls]]''. Dorothy was struck with a strange illness that left her perpetually lethargic. She had gone to several doctors and even traveled to a specialist in New York, only to be told she was just getting old and should do something new like get her hair done or some nonsense. It was only after a 5th (?) opinion that she was diagnosed with the rare Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This episode was inspired by one of the produces coming down with this same disorder.

** Actually, CFS is a diagnosis of exclusion (that is, when every known cause of fatigue has been ruled out you call it CFS), and there is no specific treatment. Getting diagnosed with CFS isn't really all that helpful. If Dorothy was the kind of person who enjoyed getting a new hairdo, that actually wouldn't be a bad idea to help relieve her symptoms.

* One episode of ''[[Lie to Me (TV)|Lie to Me]]'' had a suspect with Dissociative Identity Disorder, correctly named and handled with slightly more accuracy than most places. For someone it was called "the holy grail of psychology".

* One episode of ''[[Lie to Me (TV series)|Lie to Me]]'' had a suspect with Dissociative Identity Disorder, correctly named and handled with slightly more accuracy than most places. For someone it was called "the holy grail of psychology".

* Partially deconstructed as part of a [[B Story]] in the short-lived FOX series ''Mental''. The father of one of the doctors [[I'm Not a Doctor But I Play One On TV|plays a doctor on television]] and, mimicking his acting job, diagnoses a patient with [[wikipedia:Mad hatter disease|Mad hatter disease]] and orders a blood test on her. The real doctor is annoyed at his father practicing medicine without a license... until a nurse comes in and asks how he made the connection, as the disease is really rare.

* Partially deconstructed as part of a [[B Story]] in the short-lived FOX series ''Mental''. The father of one of the doctors [[I'm Not a Doctor But I Play One on TV|plays a doctor on television]] and, mimicking his acting job, diagnoses a patient with [[wikipedia:Mad hatter disease|Mad hatter disease]] and orders a blood test on her. The real doctor is annoyed at his father practicing medicine without a license... until a nurse comes in and asks how he made the connection, as the disease is really rare.

* Parodied in ''[[Boy Meets World]]''. Turns out Cory's just a hypochondriac.

* On channels like TLC and Discovery Health, they will often show specials about people with these diseases to dispel the myths about it (like the special on Tourette's where none of the children with it actually swore).