Chairman of the DSM-IV on overdiagnosis Autism, in genera

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DSM-5 Diagnoses In Kids Should Always Be Written In Pencil by Allen Francis

He lists 10 reasons for overdiagnosis I agree with a lot of it especially

and he seems to be reading my mind about this

It seems to be in the American personality deal with problems with panic, suspicion, oversimplification in defining the problem, and overcorrection. I see a lot of this going on with Autism. I understand that this is a mainstream media article and Frances had to stick strictly to topic. This meant a lot of important points were overlooked.

I do believe the laser focus on overdiagnosis is causing more harm than good. A lot of what is considered overdiagnosis is misdiagnosis. An overcorrection will lead to people misdiagnosed losing their incorrect diagnosis sans replacing it with the proper one. As we have discussed time and time again the focus on kids and overdiagnosis of autism is leading to dismissal and misdiagnosis of adults especially female ones.

Good article, ASPartOfMe. We count on you to bring such things to our attention.

Have a great day!

Hmm, we kind of have the opposite problem here in the U.K. Many people aren't assessed or diagnosed with anything due to there being no money in the health services to help us.

I've had terrible problems getting any help for my kids and we've now had to go down the private healthcare route to help our youngest son, who does have Aspergers. My eldest ended up in a terrible state with anxiety and it was only by a pure fluke that I managed to get help for him when he was at the grand old age of 17.

Here in the U.K., it's usual to blame the parents for any difficulties regardless of what they are. The only kids who are assessed are the ones who are severely affected. Kids aren't diagnosed with stuff like bipolar here either. Many who don't receive help or a proper assessment end up in prison, self harming, on the streets, on drugs/alcohol or commit suicide.

Health insurance for us is too expensive and private healthcare is difficult to afford if you pay yourself, with no insurance. It's all a terrible mess tbh.

I agree with arachnids about the NHS situation in the UK. This goes for mental health and even physical health. They now do the best they can to actively ignore or "fob off" diagnosing anyone with anything.

I realize the way I stated that sounds hyperbolic but it's very close to the real situation. I put it down to the squeezed funding, they've been cut so drastically that nobody would blame someone for believing that only if you're bleeding to death are you NOT told to go home and take an aspirin. Seriously.

Bird, I ended up in severe pain one night and they said they'd send an ambulance. It never came, so my husband had to drive me to the hospital. I was in so much pain I was nearly passing out and the sweat was teeming out of me. My bp and pulse rate was high when I got there. They took some bloods in the triage room. My pain threshold is pretty high, but I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack due to the pain.

They said there were no rooms, so I had to just sit in the waiting room. I was given a small dose of oramorph which did nothing. After nearly three hours, I was still not seen and the pain was wearing off, so I just went home. I took lots of meds and knocked myself out so I could just sleep.

I went to see my GP and he told me that my bloods showed I'd got pancreatitis. The pain had been my gallbladder passing a stone out and it irritated my pancreas on the way through. This is a potentially serious and life threatening situation, yet I was just ignored and left in a waitimg room full of drunks and fools who had nothing wrong with them judging by the way they were laughing and chatting.

The NHS is on its way out believe me. I've never known it this bad. I fear for our future.

According to the book "Back to Normal" it's easier to get diagnosed with an ASD than it is in the UK so more autism diagnoses happens in the US. But very interesting what you wrote. Apparently people are too normal to be diagnosed but yet they are struggling. If they don't have any stereotypes and aren't acting any different, people just assume they're normal. I will say this, some are too normal to be different but are too different to be normal. Also I read in the book that eccentric is more accepted in the UK than it is in the US but what Enrico Gnaulati failed to mention was more people struggle in the UK when they are too normal to be assessed or even diagnosed so more of them struggle there. he also talked about in his book how much society has changed and expectations so more kids are being diagnosed. I also read somewhere else more people have anxiety because of work expectations have changed. It's like mental illnesses are becoming the norm and pretty soon it will all be normal it might not be considered an impairment anymore. I read that up to %50 of Americans will have a diagnosed condition from the DSM-5. That is a lot and too normal. But also very scary. So it's like my parents had been right the whole time, I am normal. It's like they had predicted the future. It's society that is the problem. But I would be careful with this type of thinking.

I fixed the improper quotes. This quote makes me laugh.

Arachnids, that is just awful! That is the type of thing that I'm hearing more and more about. I've had some physical issues myself, not as bad as that, but I was also more or less sent away with no further help and not even an appointment for a specialist or further tests. I've been healthy my whole life and never needed a doctor; now in middle age issues severe enough to affect my work are coming up and nobody will take me seriously, despite never having bothered them before.

I hope you're going to be okay; what happened to you was appalling.

It happens here in the US too.

My uncle died of cancer over a year ago. He was in chronic pain and he did go to doctors but they would blow him off. Then one day he fell in his home and was in too much pain to even move so he called 911 and the ambulance came and they took him to the hospital. But because it was so bad, they flew him to another hospital that was an hour away from where he lived by car and they found out he had cancer and it had spread through his whole body it was too late to save him so they gave him pain killers instead and he died peacefully four days later pain free. His house has sat empty ever since and I always hope it doesn't get found by anyone and vandalized thinking it's abandoned. My parents want to use his house as a place for them to go to for when they ever want to visit Montana again and they have an old neighbor keep a lookout on that house.

My mom on the other hand, she got lucky only because she had a lump on her thigh. But if she had gone in months sooner, it would have been passed of as she is just under a lot of stress because she is working too hard and working too many hours so that is why she is always tired. From the stories I hear, it sounds like doctors are lazy and they don't really care about their patients so they always try and find the easy way and don't look deeper into it.

Cancer is scary because you don't know if you will find a doctor who will listen to you or even want to do further tests, etc. to find out why you are in pain. Then they finally do something about it when he isn't able to move and is in tremendous pain but it was too late. Plus even with insurance, you can still go bankrupt and lose your house and car and land because they don't pay for all of it and even after insurance it can still be costly. It cost my parents my dad's retirement. I am not sure how bad my uncle's health insurance was. My mom just had very good health insurance through her work so that was why she only lost the retirement money. Without it, they might have lost their whole land and their house.

that is, arguably, malpractice. Pancreatitis can kill. I'm not in the UK, but in the US, where we have different problems with access to quality care, but your story is harrowing. Seriously, they did you a significant wrong by not at least assessing you. That was a major miss. Glad you made it through. Hopefully your GP followed up to make sure your gallbladder has been taken care of too...

I broadly agree with the article, too. I especially like 6) "Biological reductionism has falsely assumed that all troubling childhood behaviors result from a chemical imbalance in the brain. Ignoring psychological, social, and educational factors leads to unwarranted medicalization and excessive diagnosis and treatment."

On the NHS tangent: The national target is for 95% of attendances to A&E to either be admitted or discharged within 4 hours. Lately, the nation-wide figure for major A&E departments is about 86%. My local one is running about 85%. 19 out of 136 Trusts with "type 1" (big, 24 hour A&Es with consultant oversight) met the target in September according to NHS England.

So in a modern Health Service A&E, 3 hours is, grimly, a completely realistic time to wait without admission or discharge. The last time a family member of mine went to A&E they were in there 6 hours (and left after being told that the information from another medical professional that had prompted the visit in the first place was a mistake).

In my local Trust, in 2014, 50 people waited over 12 hours. That was their worst year, however. The EDs cannot physically extend their capacity - they don't have the estates or money for it to match demand. ED is absorbing people who the strain on GP services is bouncing, or people who aren't registered etc. Many people who can't get in to a GP have legitimate cause and worry to attend A&E. Many really, really don't.

Here's a fun fact - my local trust is in an approximately £50million deficit. About £10million is the cost of the clinical negligence insurance premium alone. The trust loses 300% more to clinical negligence costs annually than to Research and Development.