Would you be more anxious about having erectile dysfunction or impotence?

Well, a recent study (via the ACP Internist) showed that when a diagnosis was presented in medical terms, versus its colloquial equivalent, it was “perceived as being more severe, more apt to be a disease, and more rare, than when they were given a layperson’s label.”

Apparently, this only applied to more recent diseases. “Established” medical conditions like hypertension and myocardial infarction did not show this finding.

As patients become more familiar with these relatively newer conditions, some of which have been publicized by the pharmaceutical industry, I’d expect this finding to fade over time.