Best Diagnosis Movies & TV Shows

In the 1920s, former coal miner Harry Hoxsey claimed to have an herbal cure for cancer. Although scoffed at and ultimately banned by the medical establishment, by the 1950s, Hoxsey's formula had been used to treat thousands of patients, who testified to its efficacy. Was Hoxsey's recipe the work of a snake-oil charlatan or a legitimate treatment? Ken Ausubel directs this keen look into the forces that shape the policies of organized medicine.

A young couple faces the realities of life with their child who is diagnosed with AIDS.

Feature-length ITV drama based on real events. Bill and Wendy Ainscow (Timothy Spall and Brenda Blethyn) are a middle class, middle-aged Birmingham couple locked in a deeply dysfunctional relationship with their 32-year-old daughter Lisa (Rebekah Staton). In a culmination of years spent unsuccessfully trying to obtain a diagnosis and get state help to deal with with Lisa's condition - which eventually turns out to be Asperger's syndrome - Bill and Wendy are ultimately driven to desperate measures with tragic consequences.

Mary Ann Singleton, a naïve young secretary from the mid-west, tumbles head first into the colorful world of San Francisco, where carefree chaos revolves around the funky old apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane.

Diagnosed with a mental illness halfway through his senior year of high school, a witty, introspective teen struggles to keep it a secret while falling in love with a brilliant classmate who inspires him to open his heart and not be defined by his condition.

It was a chance meeting started by one of Sol’s friends trying to chat up Jennifer. However, in the end, it was those two who hit it off. Sol enjoyed Jen’s smile, her effort, and how silly she could be. Jen enjoyed Sol’s cooking, his athleticism, and that he would join her in fun moments. As you can imagine, love bloomed, and things got serious. Jen’s investment in Sol led to her pushing him to follow his dreams and even move in to save money. Sol’s investment in Jen well, it led to him proposing. But what started as a liver tumor grew into full-on cancer, so with a diagnosis of 6 months to live, Sol and Jennifer try to make the best of it.

A boy with Tourette's syndrome overcomes criticism and discrimination to achieve his dream of becoming a teacher.

ER explores the inner workings of an urban teaching hospital and the critical issues faced by the dedicated physicians and staff of its overburdened emergency room.

A biopic of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who has become one of top scientists in humane livestock handling.

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a patient named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

10-year-old Bart Millard lives with his mother and abusive father Arthur in Texas. One day his mother drops him off at a Christian camp where he meets Shannon. Upon his return from camp, Bart finds his mother has left and movers are removing her belongings. He angrily confronts his father, who denies that his abusiveness was the reason she left. Years later, in high school, Bart and Shannon are dating. Bart plays football to please his father but is injured, breaking both ankles and ending his career. The only elective with openings is music class, so he reluctantly signs up.

A short kid from a Canadian army base becomes the international pop culture darling of the 1980s—only to find the course of his life altered by a stunning diagnosis. What happens when an incurable optimist confronts an incurable disease?

Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested.

Multiple coincidences and a chance meeting bring together Alice and Jack, two strangers from very different family backgrounds, for an unexpected Christmastime courtship filled with personal revelations, misread signals, and a very real health scare that will either destroy or strengthen the budding romance.

A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family's decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.

George Bird is a salesman of agricultural machinery who finds out that he hasn't long to live. On his doctor's advice, he goes to an exclusive seaside resort to spend his savings on one last holiday.

Extrovert Corinne convinces Jane, a shy, talented baker, to commit to a year of bringing cakes to bars, to help her meet people and build confidence. But when Corinne receives a life-altering diagnosis, the pair faces a challenge unlike anything they've experienced before.

Inspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.

A suburban mother faces her cancer diagnosis while trying to find humor and happiness as well.

An editor gets drawn into a web of intrigue and murder when she receives an unfinished manuscript.

Susannah Cahalan, an up-and-coming journalist at the New York Post becomes plagued by voices in her head and seizures, causing a rapid descent into insanity.

London, 1953. Mr. Williams, a veteran civil servant, is an important cog within the city's bureaucracy as it struggles to rebuild in the aftermath of World War II. Buried under paperwork at the office and lonely at home, his life has long felt empty and meaningless. Then a devastating medical diagnosis forces him to take stock, and to try and grasp some fulfilment before it passes permanently beyond reach.

The true story of Frances Farmer's meteoric rise to fame in Hollywood and the tragic turn her life took when she was blacklisted.

Due to a mix-up at the doctor's office, Fred believes he has only 24 hours left to live.

In the middle of a quiet suburb, a power-hungry pre-teen dreams of making her cookie selling troop the most powerful clique. With the moral compass of a movie gangster, she is willing to use everything from her family, friends, and even a schoolmate's terminal cancer diagnosis as leverage in her quest for cookie world domination. Cookies must be sold, and power will be grabbed, no matter the cost!

Beck, a single mom, lives in Six Nations, Canada. After her mother’s death, she abandons her dream of becoming a Mohawk language teach- er, and an unhealthy lifestyle leads to a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes. The ghost of Tom Longboat, a sports legend of the early 1900s, appears to her. He teaches Beck to become an honor runner, dedicating each run to an aspect of creation or a special person in her life. With Tom’s help, Beck is able to turn her life around.

Dr. Mark Sloan is a good-natured, offbeat physician who is called upon to solve murders.

Cancer: Few words are more feared. But in her sharply researched, deftly humorous message of hope, survivor Meghan O’Hara changes the way we think about this terrifying disease, showing that it’s time to stop being afraid of cancer and time to make cancer afraid of us. Following her diagnosis, O’Hara met neurologist Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, who was diagnosed with brain cancer while doing cancer research. Together they explore daily Western behaviors that are linked to 70% of cancer deaths: smoking, processed foods, stress, contaminants, and lack of exercise. Narrated and executive produced by Morgan Freeman, “The C Word” is an unflinching look at our complacency with cancer culture, the vibrant cast of characters who are changing the game, and the tools we already have to beat the dreaded scourge of our time.

Soul-touching and moving, TWO WAYS HOME compassionately follows Kathy (Tanna Frederick), a woman newly diagnosed with bipolar disorder who is released from prison on good behavior and returns to her country home in Iowa to reconnect with her estranged 12-year-old daughter (Rylie Behr) and her cantankerous elderly grandfather (Tom Bower). Her return home is turbulent and a rough, unwelcome transition in which Kathy must come to terms with her diagnosis and its implications on her identity, while also realizing that her family was happier when she was gone. Conflict with her family intensifies as she struggles to keep her head above water, putting her self-worth and well-being to the ultimate test.

A stunning cancer diagnosis spurs Abbie to seek a future girlfriend for fiancé and childhood sweetheart Sam, who's clueless when it comes to dating.

Harry Sterndale, a failed photographer, is given a diagnosis of cancer and told that he has only three months to live. After thinking things over, he decides that since he is dying anyway, he will kill or destroy all the people that ever crossed or hurt him during his life - after all, he will be dead anyway long before he can come to trial and get his just desserts from society. Harry hires an assassin to finish himself off in style, and even has time to fall in love with Jill. However, there's just one small problem with Harry's master plan - the cancer diagnosis is totally inaccurate and now he's got a hitman on his trail and several policemen wanting to talk to him about some murders...

A woman who suffers from multiple personality disorder is found during therapy to have suffered child abuse in this fact-based story.

This documentary recounts the difficult choice actress Mary Astor had to make after learning her personal, very intimate, diaries had been stolen. The film tells the story of Astor's 1936 child custody case.

On the day of his scheduled execution, a convicted serial killer gets a psychiatric evaluation during which he claims he is a demon, and further claims that before their time is over, the psychiatrist will commit three murders of his own.

Set in Paris in 1919, biopic centers on the life of late Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, focusing on his last days as well as his rivalry with Pablo Picasso. Modigliani, a Jew, has fallen in love with Jeanne, a young and beautiful Catholic girl. The couple has an illegitimate child, and Jeanne's bigoted parents send the baby to a faraway convent to be raised by nuns.

Larry Flynt is the hedonistically obnoxious, but indomitable, publisher of Hustler magazine. The film recounts his struggle to make an honest living publishing his girlie magazine and how it changes into a battle to protect the freedom of speech for all people.

The extraordinary true story of eccentric British artist Louis Wain, whose playful, sometimes even psychedelic pictures helped to transform the public's perception of cats forever.

Faced with the challenging behaviour of their kids, more and more parents in America are turning to psychoactive medication to help them cope, even though the drugs, and sometimes the diagnoses, remain controversial. Louis travels to one of America's leading children's psychiatric treatment centres, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to get to know the diagnosed children and hoping to understand what drives parents to put their kids on drugs.

A near death experience gives a young man, engaged to be married, the ability to heal people.

A world-weary college professor is given a life-changing diagnosis and decides to throw all pretense and conventions to the wind and live his life as boldly and freely as possible with a biting sense of humor, a reckless streak and a touch of madness.

An extraordinary look at the lives of a middle-aged couple in the midst of the wife's breast cancer diagnosis.

At one of his many visits to his doctor, hypochondriac George Kimball mistakes a dying man's diagnosis for his own and believes he only has about two more weeks to live. Wanting to take care of his wife Judy, he doesn't tell her and tries to find her a new husband. When he finally does tell her, she quickly finds out he's not dying at all (while he doesn't) and she believes it's just a lame excuse to hide an affair, so she decides to leave him.

Ben Tyler has been diagnosed with cancer. With a grim chance of survival in the best case scenario even if he immediately begins treatment, he instead decides to take a motorcycle trip from Toronto through the Canadian prairies to British Columbia.

When Elliot, a brash 23-year-old living carefree in New York City, meets the sensible Mia and receives a damning diagnosis all in the same week, his world is turned completely upside down. But as their love blossoms amidst the chaos of his treatment, they discover that Elliot's illness is not the real test of their relationship – it's everything else.

Set over one night in Tokyo, we follow Leo, a young boxer down on his luck as he meets his ‘first love’ Monica, a call-girl and an addict but still innocent. But, little does Leo know, Monica is unwittingly caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme, and the two are pursued through the night by a corrupt cop, a yakuza, his nemesis, and a female assassin sent by the Chinese Triads. All their fates intertwine in spectacular Miike style, at his most fun and anarchic.

Their love of dance, and their friendship, is challenged for two high school girls when one is diagnosed with cancer.

After befriending a patient and then losing her to cancer, Dr. Sydney Ludwick decides to take some much needed time off to attend the 20th anniversary of her high school reunion and confront some deep seated resentments from the past.

Katie Arneson is faking cancer. A university dance major, Katie's falsified diagnosis and counterfeit fundraising have transformed her into a campus celebrity surrounded by the supportive community she's always dreamed of. But now dependent on a bursary for sick students to maintain her ruse, Katie learns the funding is in jeopardy unless she can provide copies of her medical records within the week.

The story of Ryan White, a 13-year-old haemophiliac who contracted AIDS from factor VIII, which was used to control this disorder.

This PBS documentary explores depression, a debilitating disease that affects millions of Americans. Touching the lives of people from diverse backgrounds, depression still carries a stigma that causes some sufferers to go without treatment. Real people with depression talk about their experiences, and scientists offer commentary to shed light on the disease, including its diagnosis, treatment and current research.