Research on quality of life may herald a welcome psychosomatic change in biomedical research and clinical practice. The many promising horizons available, however, do not prevent miscommunication, random effort and faulty reasoning. An illusion of simplicity has caused many investigators to believe that the measurement of quality of life is simple and feasible, whereas only the psychosocial variables affecting quality of life can be assessed by current, reliable psychometric methods. The areas concerned with biomedical research on quality of life are reviewed and some methodological issues are discussed.