Underdiagnosed Research Paper

Mental illness is quickly becoming more and more common. There was a time when Americans never even knew many of the different mental illnesses and disorders were out there, and now it seems like everyone has one. This is because mental illness is overdiagnosed and there are statistics to prove this. The numbers of people being diagnosed with depression or anxiety has increased dramatically, along with ADHD. According to a survey that was done between 2001 and 2003, “46% of Americans met the standards of having a mental illness. These standards were from the American Psychiatric Association and the study was conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health” (Levine 2). That's almost half of Americans. There is no way that many of us have a mental disorder, and this is because they are taking normal behavior that everyone feels, and blowing it out of the water.

There are many different mental illnesses and ailments and just as many medications to treat them. The problem is that sometimes the medications are not correct for your disorders due to similar symptoms. This leads to problems with the patients who need help, but the patients are not getting the right medications and treatment they need.

The article, “Deliberate Misdiagnosis in mental Health Practice,” by Kirk & Kutchins, was written after analyzing a survey given to clinicians on under or over-diagnosing their clients. There are times when a clinician feels pressure to use a label that they do not believe is the best description of a person’s symptoms. The first one describe in this article is the pressure by insurance companies often require a diagnosis to obtain reimbursement for treatment. Other times, insurance companies will only cover certain treatment, so an incorrect diagnosis must be given so that the client will continue to receive treatment. One example I see often is that substance abuse treatment is not covered by TriCare (insurance used by military members and

The field of mental health is consistently targeted by the stigmatization of mental disorders, which has been created through various societal behaviors, such as the spread and reinforcement of illegitimate information. A major contributing factor is the abuse of pharmaceutical and psychiatric policies in the attempt to acquire prescription medication for unjustified reasons. The most blatant example of an overprescribed and largely abused medication is the type meant to treat attention related disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. While ADHD medications are directed for use solely by those experiencing legitimate issues with maintaining attentional focus, they are commonly being used, and therefore abused, as

There are many different populations within the mental heath group. Children with a combination of learning & mental illness which may include psychosis are one very special and vulnerable group. Pregnant women is another. Adolescents are special even without mental conditions. Dual diagnosis substance abuse with mental illnesses are extremely challenging with many controversial issues such as making Narcan

From schizophrenia to bipolar disorder to severe depression there is no question that these are serious mental illnesses that are debilitating and require constant medical care and according to the American Psychiatric Association(APA) hording and internet disorders are just a couple of new diagnosis that they have added to the manual of mental disorder or DSM. But is this addition of new mental disorders really beneficial for the patients or is this a way for doctors and pharmaceutical companies to cash in? , this paper proposes both drawbacks and benefits to the diagnosis of mental disorders as well as investigation of some specific examples of diagnosed disorders. However, the paper’s main direction is to focus on the drawbacks which

One of the characteristics of a good parent is being concerned over their child’s well being and being their advocate in life. Many recognize their shortcomings when it comes to background knowledge about medical related things which is why the seek the authoritative advice of medical proffesionals, however for some do this almost blindly. As our technology advances have continued to develop at extreme rates were are finally having the tools to better analyze different disorders. Now on the fifth version of the DSM some disorders have been separated out as we learn that it was two vague while others have been combined as we increase our understanding. The scary part is how popularized it has all become in the increase of shared information.

According to Kirk and Kutchins( 1988), mental health professionals are intentionally misdiagnosing their clients for reasons many reasons. One reason this is occurring is for third

Just like ADHD, all of the definitions and diagnostics of these diseases are based on a set of behaviors. If someone wanted to be put on medication, all they would have to do is read the behaviors in the manual and display them while at a therapist. One of the most revolting definitions is the diagnostic explanation of Autism. Although autism is a very real disorder with very physical problems the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders simply lists behaviors that are actually quite common among children instead of the actual medical problem. Why is that? And why are psychiatrists listed as medical personnel when they simply observe behaviors instead of doing actual diagnostics. The whole system of mental disorders is rigged to accommodate what the government thinks is best. Ritalin makes obedient children that walk around lifeless like zombies. Antidepressants make the user feel as if they have no feelings, not even rage. If everyone in the United States was on drugs such as these there would be hardly no crime, just a life less, feeling-less, numb population of people that listen and behave as the government thinks that they should. That is the reason why there are ABSOLOUTELY no scientific testing done for almost any kind of mental disorder because the effects when used orally are pleasing to the government.

I would agree that before a patient is even referred to a psychatristic that they should get a full medical work-up. According to Medical News Today, 2014 1 and 20Amercians are misdiagnosed each year. When it comes to mental illness it is extremely important to make sure that you get the diagnosis right simply because the medications alone can take a major toll on someone’s health if they are not truly suffering from some form of psychosis. For example you want a patient to recive radiation treatment or take chemotherapy medications if they are not suffering from cancer. In what ways would you suppose the efforts that need to take place to reduce the amount of medical misdiagnosis in health care facilities?

Over the last few years patients with mental health disorders also have been diagnosed with an

Like any medical procedure, there comes risk when diagnosing a problem. There is no difference between a misdiagnosis of a physical ailment or a mental one. If it was physical, the damage may be done through medication or surgery, both very dangerous means-to-an-end for the wrong diagnosis. The same goes for a mental disorder, but this time it has to do with medication and the way one goes about healing. If the wrong medication was prescribed severe complications could arise that could worsen the persons mental health. If I was the clinician who was about to give a diagnosis, my background of learning the techniques, knowing how to interpret test results, and my overall familiarity at spotting mental illness could not be understated. As reported

Have you ever heard of a person that has visited a psychiatrist for minor depression, and was then prescribed with heavy drugs, and diagnosed with a more severe mental illness? The idea of this treatment has been presented and manifested into society and reinforced by stories that make the discipline of psychiatry much less than delightful. Why is it that people lack trust in psychiatry? Christopher Lane, a citizen that studies psychiatry, wrote a book called, Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness; and in this book he explains how “behaviors [that were] once understood as reactions to one’s environment [are now seen as chemistry within the brain that results in dangerous levels of neurotransmitters], like serotonin.” He later recognizes that because of this, individuals that grew up shy are at risk of becoming diagnosed as mentally ill and the growth in new disorders, such as this, have been added to the (DSM), Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, and rings like “music to the ears of drug companies”(Cooper, 2012).

Another issue is that people don’t know how to help themselves and they don’t want to try and help themselves. There has been a lot of stigma placed on people that have mental disorders. People may see them as weak or crazy and so the person might try to hide that they have the issue. There have been some problems in the past about mental health care and professional

Over the past several decades there has been an immense increase in the popularity of psychiatric medication. Dr. Rex Cowdry a psychiatrist and director of National Institute of Mental Health admits, “We do not know the causes [of any mental illness]. We don’t have the methods of ‘curing’ these illnesses yet." If psychiatrists expect to cure a mental disease, how will they if they don't even know the source of a disease? Psychiatric medications are currently being over prescribed, and cause much more harm than good. Doctors need to start thinking about other solutions to medical illnesses before prescribing psychiatric drugs.