Fibromyalgia and anxiety neurosis are the illnesses with the lowest prestige among doctors, according to a survey of Norwegian doctors.

The survey found that heart attacks top the prestige league, closely followed by leukaemia, and that neurosurgery is regarded as the most prestigious specialty (Social Science & Medicine doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.07.003).

“Results show that there exists a prestige rank order of diseases as well as of specialties in the medical community,” write the authors. “Our interpretation of the data is that diseases and specialties associated …