Psychiatric diagnosis vs medical diagnosis: Are mental health professionals aware?

Abstract

For years research has demonstrated a varying incidence of medical disorders manifesting with psychiatric symptoms. A relatively conservative estimate of such so called "medical masquerades" is around 10%. It is important to ascertain whether health care professionals are aware of possible medical masquerades perhaps most especially in a mental health center outpatient setting where non-medically trained clinicians are the first line therapists for treatment in the majority of cases. This study set about to find out how aware three types of health care clinicians (psychiatrists, nonpsychiatrically trained medical doctors, and non-medically trained mental health psychotherapists) are of the prevalence of medical masquerades, and whether these three types of clinicians perform differently on three types of clinical vignettes (psychiatric, somatoform, and medical masquerades). Results revealed that all health care professionals surveyed are aware that there are a percentage of medical masquerades in the clinical population. Results also revealed that the three types of clinicians performed differently on the case vignettes.