Where Cookbook Medicine is Likely to Misdiagnose
An elderly woman’s sudden depression turns out to be a side effect of her high blood-pressure medication.
A new mother’s exhaustion and disinterest in her baby seem like postpartum depression — but actually signal a postpartum thyroid imbalance that medication can correct.
A middle-aged manager has angry outbursts at work and frequently feels “ready to explode.” A brain scan reveals temporal-lobe seizures, a type of epilepsy that can be treated with surgery or medication.
More than 100 medical disorders can masquerade as psychological conditions, according to Harvard psychiatrist Barbara Schildkrout.
Full Wall Street Journal article on misdiagnosing psychological conditions for other medical disorders.
Since there is no subjective test for psychological disorders, I can understand how a medical condition could masquerade as a psych disorder. Conversely, some psychological disorders, like Fibromyalgia, can masquerade as medical conditions with such symptoms as pain and fatigue.
I agree with Buster. The physical symptoms of psychological problems and the psychological symptoms of physical problems must make diagnosis an absolute nightmare — I can understand why many of these things are (at least initially) misdiagnosed.
This is scary.
It sounds like we need more diagnosticians, and better diagnostic tests!
I think there needs to be more done in terms of medical community studying alternative medicine practices and holistic health – I would not be surprise if many people who have a physical disorder masquerading as a psych disorder might experience some relief from certain symptoms if they used holistic medicine.
I understand that there are a good number of alternative approaches that are not legit, but that’s not good enough reason for the medical community to shun them the way that they have been. I also believe that through active and healthy living, many if not most chemical imbalances could probably be mitigated or fixed entirely in people. I’m not a scientist, so I can’t say for sure on the thyroid, but I suppose some people with a thyroid disorder could do it.
I was under the impression that the article was throwing a punch at the Prozac doctors who prescribe antidepressants if the patient has even the slightest complaint about their mental well-being.
Studies have shown that up to 20% of older adults in the community suffer from clinically significant depression associated with increased use of medical services, disability, and death. However, less than on-half of these patients are identified and treated.
A significant factor to this statistic is the small amount of time primary care physicians has with their patients to perform basic screening tests. It might not be so much an issue of cookbook medicine, but an issue of physicians not having enough time to spend with their patients…Not enough physicians.
This is fascinating. I agree with Joe about the diagnosticians.