Posted by mtdewcmu on May 7, 2011, at 14:12:38
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/magazine/mag-08Diagnosis-t.html?hpw
This is an interesting piece in the NY Times Magazine where you get to play doctor and try to guess this patient's mystery disease. In her case, the doctors, too, missed the diagnosis until about 6 months had gone by with a lot of suffering and frustration. I'm going to ruin the surprise because I want to make a point. The lady had Cushing Syndrome, caused by a pituitary tumor. The disappointing part is that the psychiatrist utterly failed to contribute to the diagnosis. He or she was called in because the lady was having symptoms superficially resembling some kind of bipolar disorder. However, the symptoms began in her mid-seventies, and were accompanied by a bunch of obviously non-psychiatric symptoms. The diagnosis of bipolar was made. You would like to think that a psychiatrist, being an MD, would be able to differentially diagnose psych versus organic diseases. At least for endocrine diseases, because the endocrine system is so closely related to the nervous system. But I guess, in a lot of cases, psychiatrists put their diagnostic skills out to pasture.
Not a doctor. Contact a doctor for medical advice.
20mg citalopram, 40mg d-amphetamine, 15mg mirtazapine, 300mg bupropion
dx: chronic MDD, probable ADHD (inattentive)
poster:mtdewcmu
thread:984807
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110502/msgs/984807.html