# Can you sue for being misdiagnosed?



## MobiusX (Nov 14, 2008)

Can you sue for being diagnosed with a mental disorder you might not even have in the first place? You are receiving treatment, psychotherapy and even medication prescribed by a professional which can cause many negative side effects (since you don't have the condition to start off with) that can range from depression to even serious, life threatening side effects. The professional who diagnosed you with this mental disorder based her conclusion on a standard testing given to people with your symptoms which showed that you clearly have the disorder. Would she be held responsible in this case? You find other several professionals who tell you that you were misdiagnosed. What if you never took medication but you wasted money on therapy due to being misdiagnosed?


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## The Professor (Jul 31, 2011)

you can... I doubt you would win though. Like you said, it's standard testing, so not one person can be held responsible.


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## VanDamMan (Nov 2, 2009)

Yes, but you have to be able to prove damages. Its basic medical malpractice.


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## CipherAgent (Feb 22, 2012)

You can sue but you won't win. You'd have to prove negligence.


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## srschirm (Jun 25, 2006)

Why would this person continue with treatment if it wasn't working? Or even engage in it to begin with if said person thought he didn't have the ailment?


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## akt (Jun 21, 2011)

I know this is an older thread, but I found this thread through a google search. 

Pretty interesting it's hard to file a lawsuit for psychiatric mis/diagonsis. One way I think is if the problem turns out to be a physical problem (hormones, thyroid, vitamin deficiencies) and the doctor didn't have you do a physical first. I never had a psychiatrist do a physical first though.

someone asked why would you keep going for treatment if you felt it wasn't working or seek treatment even if you thought you didn't have the ailment... You might go to a doctor or therapy knowing something is wrong but not sure what. you get diagnosed and you believe the doctor and that you have the disorder they tell you they diagnosed you with. You know like the placebo effect? Maybe it's an honest mistake by the doctor or maybe he's money greedy and hopes to keep having you come back.

Well, I'm wondering about it because a couple of years ago I saw a psychologist that diagnosed me ADHD and anxiety. I had to see him, I didn't seek help from him...but talking and testing was done within less then 30-45 minutes and I don't think he really took in the outside factors effecting my life at the time. so I get diagonsed for the first time ever with ADHD and since then I'm convinced I have it. Never been told I had it before..but I convinced myself I must have it and have been trying different supplements for it. 

My concern is though..with the anxiety, it was almost like the doctor was telling me I was over worrying about things that I should of been worrying about which is where I'm thinking he was wrong. Most people will assume the doctor knows best and knows more than you do, right?

The doctor diagnosing me with those disorders caused me not to receive vocational classed or job search help assistance, which is still affecting me today because I still need the job help....I did tell him it was really important that I get that help, which is what I think he mistook as anxiety. I told him the things that were going on in my life so he wouldn't mistake the stress for something else...but I guess that didn't work as planned.

ok... to sum it up..I guess I'm wondering if telling the doctor genuine concerns that were happening in my life and him marking it off as "just anxiety" might be grounds for a lawsuit... I'm guessing probably not unless I told them I was going to do physical harm to myself or others and the doctor failed to do anything. But it seems just as careless to say you are over worrying and it's anxiety about something in life that you should be correcting (like in my case needing a job and some training to keep a roof over my head).


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## Focus123 (Aug 30, 2013)

If you feel violated with your psychiatric care, due to issues with a mental health worker acting unprofessionally, you can file a complaint first with your State's Mental Health board.

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Se...Management/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=79758

If you decide to pursue legal means, know it's going to cost you excessive amounts of money to hire a lawyer, and you probably have better options in spending that same amount of money on more important areas, like money your for educational training, your housing payments, or maintenance on your car. It just might not be worth the time and money to pursue legal means.

If anything, filing a complaint will give you some sense of fairness that you put that mental health practitioner in place, instead of feeling being taken advantage of. You can also post on yelp about your review of their services in order to inform the public about your unhappy encounter.

The good thing is that the mental health worker will better take their profession more seriously, once the State's Mental health department looks into their practice, and this might prevent their actions from affecting another person from being taken advantage of as well.

Part of life is to admit we made mistakes, whether it means our regrets of not acting differently in high school, not training for a certain career, or not taking our mental health seriously, earlier.

And I can tell you that most people with mental illness have made many bad decisions in getting involved with either ineffective therapists or ineffective psychiatrists. However, the good thing is once you know what a bad therapist/psychiatrist is, you know how to find a better one.


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## Terranaut (Jul 11, 2013)

If you have a good case and money for lawyers you have a prayer. But you have to show damaages, malpractice and/or heglect. I went to a dotor to get off of Xanax and the noy wit gave me Suboxone. That drgus has nothing to do with Xanamx and creates it own addition which is terrible. Since I was able to stop in time before the Suboxone addicted me, a lawyet told me I'd lose. There are other things in the addiction world where mistakes can be litigated but then it's all on public record what you did and how you did it to get addicted in the first place and someone could black mail you with that info. I went to a hospital for a vicodin addiction, they told me they would put me on a 30-day detox. There is no such thing as a 30 day detox. It should be no more than four or five days so you don't get additicted to mathadone. By given ou stong doses for weeks they create an addition ten times worse. But suiing causes you to have their attorneys emand incriminating info from you.


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## modafinilguy (Oct 13, 2013)

Very hard to win, have to strongly demonstrate negligence. Psychiatric conditions are very subjective so you would have to have a very strong case to demonstrate that the doctor basically demonstrated total incompetence in your diagnosis.

Unless you were very severely wronged by strong incompetence, then I personally feel that trying to sue a doctor for such reasons is morally wrong.


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