Causal explanatory pluralism and medically unexplained physical symptoms

In this paper, we propose a methodology for investigating medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPSs). These symptoms are common in both primary and specialist medical practices, but are poorly understood. Currently, MUPSs are diagnosed via non-explanatory labels. However, we show that explanatory diagnoses are preferable to non-explanatory syndromic diagnoses because they bring both epistemic and therapeutic benefits to patients and their providers. Thus, we advocate a methodology of causal explanatory pluralism in the diagnostic workup and clinical management of MUPSs.