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Medical and Other Psychiatric Conditions Potentially Misdiagnosed as Schizophrenia

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Schizophrenia Is a Misdiagnosis

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Abstract

Although psychotic mood disorders likely account for a large majority of misdiagnoses of schizophrenia, many medical disorders, medications, drugs, and some other psychiatric disorders can present with psychotic features that can also lead to misdiagnoses of schizophrenia or a mood disorder. Hall et al. (1978) reported an incidence of medical disorders in 9.1% of 658 consecutive psychiatric outpatients that they felt caused the patients’ psychiatric symptoms. Such patients were most commonly misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and depression. A similarly designed study found 5.6% of first-episode patients diagnosed with schizophrenia had an unrecognized medical disorder that explained psychotic symptoms (Johnstone et al. 1987).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Kansas, School of Medicine, Kansas City, KS, 66160-7341, USA

    C. Raymond Lake M.D., Ph.D. (Professor Emeritus)

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  1. C. Raymond Lake M.D., Ph.D.
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Correspondence to C. Raymond Lake M.D., Ph.D. .

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Lake, C.R. (2012). Medical and Other Psychiatric Conditions Potentially Misdiagnosed as Schizophrenia. In: Schizophrenia Is a Misdiagnosis. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1870-2_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1870-2_14

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