Perhaps we could get this put on medical students' reading syllabus?
What's that you said doc? You can't be bothered to read 182 pages,
you'll just diagnose em all with CFS/ME?
Shame on you!
Lara
http://tinyurl.com/2glnwj
Preventing Misdiagnosis of Women: A Guide to Physical Disorders That
Have Psychiatric Symptoms (Women's Mental Health and Development)
(Hardcover)
by Elizabeth Adele Klonoff (Author), Hope Landrine (Author) "Several
of the physical disorders that present in psychiatric symptoms are
endocrinological disorders-disorders of the endocrine system ..."
(more)
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Synopsis
Many physical disorders suffered by women have psychiatric symptoms.
For example, hyperthyroidism can result in depression and anxiety,
and temporal lobe epilepsy can have the same symptoms as bipolar
disorder. As a result, women are in danger of being misdiagnosed as
having psychiatric problems and receiving completely inappropriate
treatment. This volume gives psychotherapists, counsellors and other
mental health professionals the foundation for identifying
physiological disorders that may be at the root of the mental health
problems presented by female clients. Illustrated with detailed cases
and supplemented with quick reference guides to symptoms and a
glossary, this much-needed book provides information that until now
has only been available in medical texts and journals. The authors
cover endocrinological and brain seizure problems, as well as
diseases such as multiple sclerosis and lupus erythematosus. They
provide an overview of the systems and organs involved, and describe
how particular malfunctions can result in serious behavioural
problems.
* * *
Many medical disorders present as psychological disturbances. Pancreatic cancer can cause visual hallucinations. Adrenal tumors will cause behavior that can seem psychotic. So you have to be very careful not to accept psychiatric diagnoses at face value. – Sheila Bastien, Ph.D.
I agree with Lara that more training needs to be given in identifying physical diseases that have symptoms that mimic psychiatric problems. Any CFS patient who mentions to the doctor "fatigue" or "sleeping a lot" tends to be diagnosed with depression, regardless of the numerous other symptoms incompatible with a depression diagnosis.
I will never work full-time again because of the precious time wasted giving me anti-depressants (which made me sicker) instead of treating what was really wrong with me. By the time I finally was taken seriously and got what I needed, the damage was done. No one ever considered that my taking the initiative to start multiple businesses was incompatible with the depressive symptom of having no initiative to start anything, nor that I kept denying suicidal thoughts or feelings of worthlessness/hopelessness, nor that I couldn't remember the last time I cried. They heard "fatigue", thought depression, and could not be persuaded to change their minds.
I was encouraged to return to work without the doctor contemplating that if I'd been fired for not being able to do the job, then, without treatment for my neurological symptoms, I would still be unable to do the job. Through his filter, he chose to hear that I thought I couldn't work because I was insecure about my abilities and just needed to restore my self-esteem by seeing that I really could do the work if I tried. Not, as I kept telling him, that I was trying to do similar tasks at home, and really could NOT do the work.
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