What is the most misdiagnosed mental illness?

BPD is one of the most commonly misdiagnosed mental health conditions. It's so misdiagnosed, in fact, that there isn't even an accurate prevalence rate for the condition. What we do have is an estimate of 2–6% of the population, which actually makes BPD very prevalent.

What can be mistaken for mental illness?

Six Diseases Often Mistaken for Mental Disorders
  • Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. ...
  • Lyme Disease. ...
  • Thyroid Disorder. ...
  • Syphilis. ...
  • Obstructive Sleep Apnea. ...
  • Neuroendocrine Tumors.


Can you be wrongly diagnosed with mental illness?

Research has shown that many Americans have been misdiagnosed and are being issued prescription medication for conditions they do not have. Some of the commonly misdiagnosed mental illnesses include bipolar disorder, depression, and even obsessive-compulsive disorder.

How many mental health patients are misdiagnosed?

Misdiagnosis rates reached 65.9% for major depressive disorder, 92.7% for bipolar disorder, 85.8% for panic disorder, 71.0% for generalized anxiety disorder, and 97.8% for social anxiety disorder.

What is the most difficult mental illness to treat?

Why Borderline Personality Disorder is Considered the Most “Difficult” to Treat. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is defined by the National Institute of Health (NIH) as a serious mental disorder marked by a pattern of ongoing instability in moods, behavior, self-image, and functioning.

Depression, Schizophrenia, Bulimia & More: Why Does Misdiagnosis Happen? | MedCircle



What is the number one mental disorder?

The most common are anxiety disorders major depression and bipolar disorder. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, this disorder is highly treatable, but only around 37 percent of those affected actually receive treatment. It is common to be diagnosed with both anxiety and depression.

What is the easiest mental illness to treat?

Anxiety disorder is the most treatable of all mental illnesses. Anxiety disorder produces unrealistic fears, excessive worry, flashbacks from past trauma leading to easy startling, changes in sleep patterns, intense tension and ritualistic behavior.

What can be mistaken for schizophrenia?

A few disorders have some of the same symptoms as schizophrenia (schizophrenia spectrum disorders), including:
  • Schizotypal personality disorder. ...
  • Schizoid personality disorder. ...
  • Delusional disorder. ...
  • Schizoaffective disorder. ...
  • Schizophreniform disorder.


Is Bipolar often misdiagnosed as ADHD?

Approximately 20 percent of people with ADHD also suffer from bipolar disorder, a serious mental illness characterized by depressive and manic episodes. Since both conditions share symptoms, but ADHD is more common, bipolar disorder is often missed or misdiagnosed.

How often is bipolar wrongly diagnosed?

As per the survey taken by the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association (DMDA), 69 percent of patients with bipolar disorder are misdiagnosed initially and more than one-third remained misdiagnosed for 10 years or more.

What diseases are most commonly misdiagnosed?

7 of the Most Frequently Misdiagnosed Illnesses
  • #1 – Lupus.
  • #2 – Parkinson's Disease.
  • #3 – Fibromyalgia.
  • #4 – Lyme Disease.
  • #5 – Multiple Sclerosis.
  • #6 – Celiac Disease.
  • #7 – Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.


How accurate are psychiatrists?

Results: The accuracy of psychiatric diagnosis was the highest for cognitive disorders 60%, followed by depression 50% and anxiety disorders 46%, whereas the accuracy of diagnosing psychosis was 0%.

Can anxiety mimic schizophrenia?

With symptoms like auditory hallucinations (hearing things that aren't there), derealization (feeling like you've lost touch with reality), and depersonalization (feeling as though you're on the outside, watching yourself), it's no wonder that so many people with severe anxiety begin to fear they have schizophrenia.

What can mimic bipolar?

Some non-psychiatric illnesses, such as thyroid disease, lupus, HIV, syphilis, and other infections, may have signs and symptoms that mimic those of bipolar disorder. This can pose further challenges in making a diagnosis and determining the treatment.

What can BPD be mistaken for?

Some symptoms of BPD can be very similar to other mental health problems, including:
  • bipolar disorder.
  • complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • depression.
  • psychosis.
  • antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)


Can ADHD be mistaken for schizophrenia?

Various studies have identified some similarities between ADHD and schizophrenia and a possible overlap. The conclusions of researchers include the following: People with schizophrenia often have symptoms of other psychiatric disorders, including ADHD, in early adolescence.

What is an ADHD meltdown?

Similarly, people with ADHD can also experience 'meltdowns' more commonly than others, which is where emotions build up so extremely that someone acts out, often crying, angering, laughing, yelling and moving all at once, driven by many different emotions at once – this essentially resembles a child tantrum and can ...

Does bipolar and ADHD go hand in hand?

Co-occurring psychiatric conditions—like anxiety and ADHD—often go hand-in-hand with bipolar disorder. What we need to remember is that these conditions require separate diagnoses and each have different treatment plans that manage symptoms and improve your quality of life.

What does an ADHD episode look like?

Most symptoms of ADHD are also seen in mania and hypomania: distractibility, hyperactivity, impulsivity, racing thoughts, excess talking, and irritability. That leaves only 3 manic criteria to tease them apart: expansive mood, grandiosity, and decreased need for sleep.

What mental illness can mimic schizophrenia?

Other disorders and conditions that are sometimes mistaken for schizophrenia include: Schizoaffective disorder. Schizoaffective disorder causes many of the symptoms of schizophrenia, like delusions.

Is bipolar worse than schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia causes symptoms that are more severe than the symptoms of bipolar disorder. People with schizophrenia experience hallucinations and delusions.

Can a blood test detect schizophrenia?

The results, published in Molecular Psychiatry, demonstrated that a biological signature of schizophrenia can be identified in blood serum, and this can distinguish persons with schizophrenia from healthy controls and from those affected by related psychiatric illnesses that have overlapping symptoms.

What mental illness gets worse with age?

Forester explains that with bipolar disorder, untreated symptoms tend to worsen with age, as may have been the case with Victor Lottmann.

What is severe mental illness?

Serious mental illness (SMI) is defined as a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder resulting in serious functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.

What are the weirdest syndromes?

12 Weird & Mysterious Diseases of the Human Body
  • Auto-Brewery Syndrome. ...
  • Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome. ...
  • Walking Corpse Syndrome. ...
  • Foreign Accent Syndrome. ...
  • Congenital Insensitivity to Pain. ...
  • Stoneman Syndrome. ...
  • Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS) ...
  • Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome.