Misdiagnosing bipolar disorder - Do clinicians show heuristic biases
Journal of Affective Disorders, 05/06/2011
Wolkenstein L et al. – It seems as if specific symptoms might not be of so much relevance as assumed. Instead, clinicians seem to follow the additive model when making diagnoses.
Methods- 204 Psychotherapists were presented with a case vignette describing someone with a BD and were asked to make a diagnosis.
- Symptoms and the total number of criteria varied systematically within the vignettes but each still fulfilled enough diagnostic criteria to be diagnosed as bipolar.
- Almost 60% of the clinicians made misdiagnoses.
- A correct diagnosis did not depend on the specific criterion of ‘reduced sleep’ but on the total number of criteria.
- The causal explanation as well as therapeutic attributes did not significantly influence diagnostic decisions.
- The study showed that a misdiagnosis can lead to severe consequences concerning the treatment recommended by clinicians.
