What are the most common misdiagnosed conditions?

When you visit the doctor, you should trust that you will receive the correct diagnosis from working towards healing. Unfortunately, in some cases, patients suffer from misdiagnosis and wind up in worse health.

According to Healthline, there are many reasons for misdiagnosis and three specific conditions that physicians commonly misdiagnose.

Why does misdiagnosis happen?

Misdiagnosis occurs for many reasons. In some cases, a physician may do his or her due diligence and still make a mistake. However, when the physician works quickly or does not consider the patient’s history, it is easier to make a mistake.

Doctors need to look over the patient’s full history. For example, if a patient comes to the doctor with a cough, he or she may receive a cold diagnosis. However, if the doctor did not look at the history to discover that the patient has undergone severe weight loss, has blood in his or her sputum or smokes, the physician may miss a lung cancer diagnosis.

What are the most common conditions?

Misdiagnoses are one of the most expensive and dangerous medical mistakes in the field. When it comes to misdiagnosis, there are three main types of illnesses physicians regularly misdiagnose. Those illnesses include:

• Infections
• Vascular events
• Cancer

When misdiagnosed, all of these conditions can have serious, if not fatal, consequences. Of these categories, the most common conditions include stroke, sepsis and lung cancer.

When it comes to conditions such as vascular events and cancer, early diagnosis becomes critical. If physicians do not take the time to learn your history and to diagnose you properly, your misdiagnosis could be due to malpractice.