Don - on disease, syndrome, disorder etc....
If I find a regular group of symptoms I think mean something then (given a bigger brain) I'm free to submit articles to journals or (with a somewhat smaller brain) produce my own articles and text books. I can call it what I want and speak about it freely. No-one will lock me up!!
BUT will I gain any recognition? In other words will people recognise what I'm suggesting, agree that it's both valid and reliable and add that recognition formally? No organisation, individual or governing body wants to mess that process up! None of them want to lay the wrong bet.
In the mean time I'm still free to spread my theory at will - it may never get into a journal but if I have a Phd I'll still be able to persuade small charities, sell seminar tickets and even diagnose folk - because I said so. I might along the way confuse a few GP's, one or two acedemics and perhaps a journal so new on the market it has sod all to loose. Chances are my syndrome/disorder got it's name from the best vague description and the sound of the words put together - syndrome from birth, disorder coming later and some other stuff.
I'm still a long way off having the interest of those who write the DSM IV Tr, WHO have never even heard of me and there's no module on my discovery at med school.
Cancer isn't called cancer disease, Parkinson's disease is often refered to as Parkinsonism, Bi-Polar comes under the umbrella of mood DISORDERS. All are researched as diseases, all are recognised across a variety of countries, all have been found to be recognisable as valid and reliable descriptions which come under the umbrella of disease.
It's what disease means - and most importantly what it DOESN'T mean that allows a decision to be well founded as to what is or isn't disease.