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Samuel Vaisrub, MD

JAMA. 1975;232(1):59.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

It is difficult to be sure which "pseudo" invaded medicine first. It might have been pseudocyeisis—an erstwhile not infrequent source of embarrassment to the physician—or pseudoleukemia described by Wilkes in 1856. Whatever and whenever its beginnings, this prefix now commands several pages in any standard medical dictionary, where pseudodiseases range from pseudoacanthosis to pseudoxanthoma elasticum. But nowhere in Stedman's or Dorland's, search hard as you may, will you find a reference to "pseudopatient." This term is an innovation and one we could often do without.

Pseudopatients come in two types: "artists" and "scientists." The former are professional actors trained to simulate various diseases for teaching purposes.¹ They have proved useful in demonstrating various clinical conditions to medical students. Some actors have even been coached to enact specific psychiatric problems for teaching principles of psychiatry to general practitioners.^2,3 And, not to be outdone by professionals, doctors themselves (pseudopseudopatients?) have . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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