4/10/2007

Do doctors over-diagnose patients ?

When I wrote do we all need mental health care? earlier, I doubt the cited number was too high. My observation tells me that some health professionals tend to over-diagnose people, and over-estimate the number people need their treatments.
According to this study, many people who diagnosed with depression actually don't really have it, they're just grappling with normal troubles such as divorce, breakup, job loss, or death of a pet. The data suggest "previous estimates of the number of Americans who suffer depression at least once during their lives - more than 30 million - are about 25% too high".
For many people, sadness is normal part of life; we can often heal ourselves with just behavioral changes.

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