MedicalConspiracies- When You Can't Get a Diagnosis

When You Can't Get a Diagnosis
" The science of medicine may be highly advanced, but that doesn't
mean that it is always exact or perfect."

How Often Are Patients Undiagnosed? Far too often.

Failure to Diagnose
By Trisha Torrey, About.com Guide

Updated February 21, 2012

It's possible there is nothing more frustrating or upsetting to a
patient or her doctor than a set of symptoms -- and no name for what
those symptoms mean. No name, no label for that set of symptoms means
the patient is undiagnosed.

"Failure to diagnose" is the terminology used by doctors (and lawyers)
to indicate a patient has a set of symptoms that have gone
undiagnosed. It is considered one of the forms of misdiagnosis, or
missed diagnosis. When that failure to diagnose leads to harm to the
patient, there are legal ramifications. When the failure eventually
leads to a diagnosis in time to treat the diagnosed illness or injury,
it's considered merely a "delayed diagnosis."

Why Can't a Diagnosis Be Determined?
The symptoms themselves may be difficult to identify. An occasional
headache may be just a headache, or it could be a symptom of a larger
problem.

The body system causing the symptoms may not be clear, and the patient
may find she is seeing the wrong specialist, leading to a delay in
diagnosis.

The patient may have more than one medical problem which makes the
diagnosis process confusing.

There may be conflicts among the drugs or supplements the patient
already takes, leading to symptoms caused by those conflicts.

There are many diagnoses that do not have definitive tests used to
determine them, or which can't be truly diagnosed until a patient has
died (upon autopsy). In these cases, doctors must use combinations of
symptoms, often vague symptoms, which can lead to a lack of diagnosis.

The real medical problem may be highly unusual or not appropriate to
the age of the patient. The doctor might not consider a diagnosis that
is very rare, or very rare for that age of patient. For example, lung
cancer in a younger person would be highly unusual.

There are thousands of rare diseases that are so rare, that few
medical professionals know much about them.

The patient may not be entirely truthful about symptoms. A patient who
claims he doesn't drink alcohol, but has pain in the region of his
liver, may not be immediately diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver.

There may be no name that indicates one specific diagnosis. Medical
science may not yet have determined a named diagnosis.

Regardless of the eventual outcome, the very lack of a label is
frustrating and upsetting at the least, and frightening at the worst.
Patients may go months or years without the label they need and that
may lead to a lack of treatment. They may become further debilitated
in the process The practitioners involved will be frustrated, too.

How Often Are Patients Undiagnosed?
Statistics on the frequency of missed diagnoses vary according to the
symptoms or the eventual diagnosis. Some examples are:

Glaucoma: estimated one million patients in the US are undiagnosed ( .
37 percent of diagnoses are missed)
Sleep Apnea: estimated 5.4 million patients in the US are undiagnosed
(2-4 percent of diagnoses are missed)
Ovarian Cancer: because women can go for many months without symptoms,
and because those symptoms are usually thought to be more like
gastrointestinal related problems, it is not uncommon for these
diagnoses to be missed.
These are examples only. A missed diagnosis can occur in almost any
disease or condition.

Outcomes Resulting From Lack of Diagnosis
Your doctor may dismiss your illness, telling you it's "all in your
head." Unless you know yourself to be a hypochondriac (so the "all in
your head" could be accurate) then you'll want to change doctors to
find one who will work with you respectfully.

Your doctor may make up a label for your illness; a name that isn't
really an accepted name for a diagnosis. Professionals call these
"fake" or "trashcan" diagnosis. They seem to be made up in order to
give the patient a label.

You may simply continue to get sicker or feel worse. Eventually your
symptoms may become pronounced enough so your problem can get
diagnosed.

You may be treated for the symptoms which will provide some relief.
You may find, however, that by relieving symptoms, you may be covering
the aspects of your medical problem that could assist the diagnosis.
For patients who are undiagnosed, it's important to remember that the
doctor wants you to have a clear diagnosis, too, because that will be
the best way to determine the right treatment. Further, it's important
to remember that the science of medicine may be highly advanced, but
that doesn't mean that it is always exact or perfect. Sometimes it may
be just as useful to know what you don't have, which your doctor will
more often be able to determine, than to know exactly what is wrong
with you.

If you have been undiagnosed for too long, and are frustrated because
your doctor has not been able to confirm a specific diagnosis for you,
you may want to review these tactics for solving your undiagnosed
disease or condition.

Suggested Reading
Maybe Your Illness IS All in Your Head
What to Do If Your Doctor Tells You "It's All in Your Head"
How to Solve Your Undiagnosed Medical Disease or Condition
http://patients.about.com/od/yourdiagnosis/a/failurediagnose.htm

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