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ultramar · Jun 13, 2013, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newtus

i read most of the comments.

lets point out some things here too about someone ACTUALLY getting a diagnosis.

am i allowed to speak here?
i personally believe its currently being overdiagnosed. i only believe this because i believe its part of the PsychFad phase. like some people said with BPD and autism and the like.

but...with overdiagnosis comes misdiagnosis. so how many being diagnosed recently ACTUALLY have it? and if there IS a misdiagnosis of bipolar we all know someones bipolar diagnosis will change. so it doesnt stay the same.

thats the thing about psychiatric labels. say 1000 people got diagnosed with bipolar. but then over the next some time period how many of them will have it changed? do they count the change too or do they count only initial diagnosis into these rise-of-bipolar-cases studies?

This is a good point, it would change the statistics if they took all of that into account.

I guess the question would be, how often are people later re-diagnosed with something different -I don't know the statistics on that but it would be interesting to know. I guess it would depend on lots of things. For example, if you stay with the same psychiatrist, I supposed your diagnosis would be less likely to change. Or if you stop seeing a psychiatrist altogether, then there wouldn't be anyone to re-diagnose. On the other hand, I suppose there are those psychiatrists out there who will take the word of the previous one and not do much of an evaluation of their own, others who will want to do their own eval/make their own decision and may or may not come to a different conclusion.

People may also present differently at different times, depending on what's going on in their lives, the level of trust they have with the provider (what is shared with them), etc., and this can also lead to contradictory diagnoses.

I think sometimes, too, people get different diagnoses from different people (different psychiatrists, therapists, in-patient stays) and because they contradict, end up choosing the one they prefer, or the one they think best describes them, and continues on with that label.

From what I've read on the boards, it seems that it happens sometimes that different providers will have different opinions on the matter -so what do you do in this situation? I think some people end up in the position of having to choose one (or more) of them for themselves.