Introduction
An accurate diagnosis is essential for the appropriate intervention and management of ill health including mental health. Several factors impede the making of accurate diagnosis of mental health to the detriment of the efficacy of the treatment interventions.
Issues that Impact on Accurate Diagnosis of Mental Health
There is minimal availability of quantifiable analysis on the assessment of mental disorders. This makes the diagnosis of mental health dependent on the symptoms and the interpretation of whether these symptoms signify any mental disorders. For example, the diagnosis of bipolar disorder is not easy and there are no diagnostic aids in the form of laboratory tests or imaging tests, making the diagnosis solely symptom dependent. However, symptoms of bipolar disorder are found in other physical or mental disorders complicating the issue of accurate diagnosis in bipolar disorder.
To avoid confusion international standards have been set for making the diagnoses of mental health, which need to be followed strictly for an accurate diagnosis. These international standards are sometimes ignored in the making of the diagnosis of mental health, leading to inaccurate diagnosis from the perspective of mental health care, and confusion to the patient with different sets of diagnoses for a same set of symptoms. Patients tend to see a general practitioner first, and diagnosis of mental health status can occur at the general practitioner level, before consultation with a mental health specialist.
Unless the same standards are used there is every likelihood of the inaccurate and confusing diagnosis emanate from these sources, particularly when the mental disorder demonstrates symptoms that can be confused with other physical or mental disorders like bipolar disorder. Thus complying with international standards is one issue in the accurate diagnosis of Mental Health (Littman, 2001).
Substance abuse or dependency can be a confounding factor in the accurate diagnosis of mental health, for it can coexist with mental disorders. The issue here is that the symptoms demonstrated in such cases can cause an inaccurate diagnosis of mental health due to the commonality of some of the symptoms. Common examples of this are major depression along with marijuana addiction and panic disorder with alcohol addiction. This makes it appear that the individual is suffering from any one health issue, while the health problem is essentially dualthe.
Furthermore, the management of these health problems requires the attention of two sets of specialists, and the patient may be under the management of a single specialist, which may be a mental health specialist or an addiction recovery specialist. In the case of the mental health specialist the addiction health problem may be missed, while in the case of the addiction recovery specialist, the mental health problems may not be diagnosed.
In either case, the problem is that the management is likely to be focused on any one aspect of the dual nature of the health problem, raising the issues with the successful outcome of the management of the health problem in the individual.
Conclusion
Two issues that affect the accurate diagnosis of mental health, which is essential for the proper management of mental health problems, are the inadequate application of international standards and the dual nature of mental health.
References
Dual Diagnosis. Mental Health. 2005. Web.
Littman, J. (2001). Early Bipolar Disorder Diagnosis – It’s Not That Easy.