I am qualified as a psychiatric nurse and spent a number of years. Sorry to say but misdiagnosis is incredibly common. But almost impossible to prevent.
The first problem is the information received. If you assume that a diagnosis comes from actually meeting a patient, then, with repsect, that's wrong. Diagnosis comes from putting together all the available information. Sadly, so many patients and their immediate relatives lie or exagerate.
Information received can come from anywhere. It may have been through a number of different agencies already, each puttin their own gloss. It is incredibly common to have reports of extreme violence and sexual misconduct, especially from young men.
When I was 16, I spent a couple of years under the supervision of welfare authorities. I had a terrible time to be frank.
When I reached 30 I started to discover some of the reasons. I had been labeled with a number of very serious offenses. All apparently happening before I reached 15. That some were impossible, others highly unlikely and others contradictory, was not taken into consideration. The records said such. They can only go on the records.
I'm in my mid 50s. Even now I can't risk repeating most of those. It's not help that I can provide concrete evidence that some at least didn't happen at all while others were so unlikely. People have been lynched for less. Literally.
Another problem I had was that I was transgender at a time when homosexuaity was still a crime (though never prosecuted) and homos were seen as perverted bottom obscessed, danger to dogs, women and children.
To make matters worse, there was a presumption of normal sexual development. Young people would grow up, seek out a partner of the opposit sex, get married and have children. Any deivation from that was assumed to be a result of sexual abuse by their father. (Since women aren't intersted in sex so they didn't do it). Such deviation could include teenage girls being promiscuous.
The numbers presenting because fo drug abuse for example is, in some areas, as high as 90% of all referrals. Drug abusers have several things in common, they are all dishonest and without exception what they really want is their drug. (Speaking as a fromer smoker, 2 years later, I will kill for a smoke).
The influence of the mental health act, (in the UK) gives these people a feeling of autonomy, being above the law, which in reality they are. There are similar arrangements in every country, including all of the US. I can't produce figures of information for abuse, other than to say it is avoided at all costs. But I can say, without doubt, that giving people that amount of power corrupts absolutely.
But are you seriously willing to remove it from them? (Think of Dr Keith Ablow).
Then there is the reality that many conditons are simply untreatable. Though the world is full of charlitans who claim they can. Therapists, Scientologists, to name two.
I'm sorry but however intersting these reports are and however serious their implications, the reality is, mistakes in psychiatry are inevitable. There is so much that could be done but I fear that medics and psychiatrists esepecially, are not the ones to do it.
None of this is intended to attack or criticise anyone, especially here in Susans'. If I am blunt it's just my own inadequacies.
