Study suggests depression is being overdiagnosed on a remarkable scale

Yes, the first one: That women in their 40s and 50s are moderately overdiagnosed and everyone else is moderately underdiagnosed.

Probably much more likely than the binary choice you set up.

 

Really? Cause the vast majority of people do just that.

 

The "vast majority" do?

 

But, aren't the two numbers too far apart for "moderate" differences to be the reason for the disparity?

Thanks!

I'm willing to believe the numbers could be different. I don't think they could be that different. It's really startling, isn't it?

 

No. Not if you define "moderate" as: Less than "massive."

You set up a binary choice: Either women were massively overdiagnosed, or everyone else was massively underdiagnosed.

There is no such either/or choice here.

 

I know I go around criticizing those folks with depression.

 

"Matt, Matt, you don't even — you're glib," yankeefan responded. "You don't even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, OK. That's what I've done."
yankeefan went on to say: "You don't know the history of psychiatry, I do."

 

I'm not sure how you bridge the gap between 10% and 25%.

I'm not even sure that at 10%, the general public isn't over diagnosed.

 

I expanded on that post.

 

Elderly African-Americans must be faking diabetes. Either they are massively overdiagnosed or others are massively underdiagnosed.

 

Yes. I see that now.

I'll admit my choice of words could have been better.

But, it still looks like folks are being over diagnosed, and women in their 40s and 50s are being over diagnosed at greater numbers than other folks.

Yes, they're more likely to see a doctor. Yes, they're more likely to have insurance.

But, if doctors are prescribing drugs to patients because patients are asking for them -- and that appears to be the case -- then women in their 40s and 50s also appear more likely to self-diagnose.

 

I love all these "1 in 4 people suffer from . . . " studies we're always hearing about.

My unofficial analysis has concluded that the 310 million people in this country each have an average of 34.7 things wrong with them.

Lucky me. I've never taken anything stronger than a Tylenol. But it was "Maximum Strength."