wastebasket diagnosis
n.— «They think of fibromyalgia as a label given to patients with many painful physical complaints, but normal test results. This is commonly called a “wastebasket diagnosis” used when all the clearly definable diseases have been tested for and eliminated as possibilities.» —“New drug treats a questionable disease” by Terry Gaff FWDailynews.com (Kendallville, Indiana) Jan. 20, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A physician in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, shares some of the vocabulary of his patients from Appalachia. There, a misery is anything painful, such as a misery in my jaw if they have a painful tooth or a misery in my back if they have lumbar pain...
A book of photographs and essays by famous writers celebrates libraries — and the librarians who changed their lives. Plus cutting doughnuts, spinning cookies, and pulling brodies: There are lots of ways to talk about spinning a car in circles on...