  We discuss aspects of non-perturbative unitarity in quantum field theory. The
additional ghost degrees of freedom arising in "truncations" of an effective
action at a finite order in derivatives could be fictitious degrees of freedom.
Their contributions to the fully-dressed propagator -- the residues of the
corresponding ghost-like poles -- vanish once all operators compatible with the
symmetry of the theory are included in the effective action. These "fake
ghosts" do not indicate a violation of unitarity.
