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Sparrow I agree with most of the points you made. But ... I don't think Hennesey's Disease is the right name. I do agree that using a person's name is the best approach. I also agree that naming it after Florence Nightingale is not a good idea for the reasons you mentioned.
As much as I admired and respected Tom Hennesey, I don't think he is the person who should be chosen.
My reasons are:
1. medical professionals are more likely to respond more positively if it were named after a doctor (one of their own). We all know what huge egos so many of them have. And a patient
advocate. Horrors!! We don't like those. Lowly patients trying to educate
us, the mighty gods of medicine. (eg Simon Wessley)
2. In most cases, when a disease is named after a patient, the patient has been a "famous" person. By this I mean star athlete, movie star ... Someone whom most people have heard of. eg. Lou Gherhig (baseball)
3. Unfortunately the way he passed will get in the way. It is heartbreaking, and it should not matter but it will. When doctors, media etc want to know who this person was, they will learn the nature of his passing. Since we have a large group trying to stick the psychiatric label on this illness, this would be a gift to them.
4. Even if point 3 were not an issue, he is unknown except to other patients. The result would be:
Patient: I have Hennesey's Disease. It was named after Tom Hennesey.
Public: Who's that? Oh, a regular person. Who cares. Immediate disinterest.
I think the person most suited for the naming honours would be Dr. Melvin Ramsay. He is was a doctor. He was not involved in psychiatry or anything outside of mainstream medicine. He was one of the first to really not only work on the illness but to really describe it in medical detail. And did he not publish about the illness? He also laid out clearly what he thought the illness was.
And he is not from the United States. My apologies to you Americans, but we are dealing with a US government institution here. Sell them on the idea of naming it after a person and they be fighting over which of "their" people to name it after. Stephen Strauss perhaps??

This is a worldwide illness and the American health bureaucracy has made a mess ever since it stuck its nose in.
Dr. Ramsay has also sadly passed away. We don't want people trying to look at doctors/researchers who are still living and trying to get their favorite in. I envision a nasty, political, backroom election campaign and a lot of hurt feelings and resentment and anger. Don't want to go there.
Therefore, I vote for Ramsay's Disease.