Misdiagnosis

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Misdiagnosis is a form of medical error in which the wrong diagnosis is made. Where practioners rely on accurate diagnosis as the basis of treatment it follows that such mistakes can compromise patient care.

Misdiagnosis in psychiatry

Medical errors occur in the treatment of mental illness.

Sufferers of dissociative identity disorder usually have psychiatric histories that contain three or more separate mental disorders and previous treatment failures. The disbelief of some doctors around the validity of dissociative identity disorder may also add to its misdiagnosis.

Studies have found that bipolar disorder has often been misdiagnosed as major depression. Its early diagnosis necessitates that clinicians pay attention to the features of the patient's depression and also look for present or prior hypomanic or manic symptomatology.

The misdiagnosis of schizophrenia is also a common problem. There may be long delays of patients getting a correct diagnosis of this disorder.

See also

• Psychiatric diagnosis and psychological therapy
• Diagnosis related groups
• Patient history
• Professional liability
• Psychodiagnostic typologies
• Screening

Additional material

Papers

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