Do my feelings fit the diagnosis?

Seidl, Elias und Seidl, Otmar (2021): Do my feelings fit the diagnosis? Avoiding misdiagnoses in psychosomatic consultation services. In: Journal of Healthcare Risk Management, Vol. 41, No. 2: pp. 9-17

Abstract

Objective Misdiagnoses are a major concern with far-reaching consequences, which have rarely been studied systematically. Therefore, the present study evaluated factors causing misdiagnoses identified by psychosomatic consultation services.

Methods Over a period of 5 years, all patients referred to the psychosomatic consultation services of a large university hospital were analyzed consecutively for misdiagnoses. We analyzed the reasons for suspecting a misdiagnosis through systematic introspection during peer supervision and evaluated the causes during semistructured interviews with the referring physician.

Results In 165 psychosomatic consultations, 24 disorders were misdiagnosed (15%). The reasons for questioning the initial diagnoses were the consulting physician's feelings and thoughts resulting from the patients’ inappropriate behavior during the consultation and unusual clinical features. In eight cases, the misdiagnosis resulted from availability bias, and in three cases each it resulted from confirmation bias, search satisfaction bias, and framing effect and attribution bias. However, lack of medical knowledge played only a minor role.

Conclusion This study highlights the nonrational elements of the diagnostic process. In the context of psychosomatic consultation services, introspection and intuitive thought processes are helpful in identifying misdiagnoses. Self-satisfaction (availability bias) and overconfidence (confirmation bias) are most likely to result in misdiagnoses.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Medicine > Medical Center of the University of Munich > Pediatric Clinic and Outpatient Clinic in the Dr. von Hauner Children‘s Hospital
• Subjects: 600 Technology > 610 Medicine and health
• ISSN: 1074-4797
• Language: English