Removing psychiatric diagnosis from medical records

How would I do this ?

It's a huge problem, because insurance companies don't want to insure "sick" people. They're a business. They don't want to insure people they think are going to cost them a lot of money. The health insurance industry doesn't deny that people are rejected or charged higher premiums because of pre-existing conditions.

Psychiatric codes and descriptions have been entered into my medical records and this unreliable and unscientific information will remain in my records and it has wrongly influenced any future medical insurance I might receive.

Can I just say No to mental health coverage ? I don't want it anyway.

In fact I refuse contact with and treatment by any psychiatrist, psychologist or other mental health practitioner as these practices, according to my philosophic and religious convictions, do not adequately or properly diagnose and such diagnoses constitute a false accusation about my behavior and/or beliefs and practices, and are stigmatizing and therefore a threat to my reputation and physical and mental well-being.

Why should I pay for something I don't want ?

This is a serious problem for me. Not only did psychiatry hurt me in the past, its hurting my future.

Copy_Cat wrote:How would I do this ?

As far as I know, once you are diagnosed with a mental disorder, that label seems to last a lifetime. It's stupid really - for example, someone can get ill with a common cold and they're not labeled as ill once they've recovered. Not sure yet why our medical system can't figure out that illnesses aren't always permanant - including mental ones. Retards.

In the US a law was passed that insurance companies cannot deny you for a pre existing condition, including mental health. In the past when I've gone to a new doctor I've not told them about certain mental health conditions, so they don't show up on my record there. I also don't have my previous records transferred so they don't have those to go off of either. While in one sense, yes a diagnosis does seem to be permanent, in my opinion it's only as permanent as you allow it to be. There's no federal agency that tracks those things.

I don't think its possible to erase something from your medical record generally speaking. Alot of diagnosis are basically theoretical and thus unfalsifiable anyway (basically religion)

Technically its possible to get a change in diagnosis, ie a counter claim of misdiagnosis, but in practice this is really rare, because of clinical but-covering, psychiatrists not wanting to disagree with each other, and that roughly theoretical basis of most of the supposed conditions.

A really good example is hyperthyroidism. Its frequently misdiagnosed as bipolar (there can be near identical symptoms, high energy, mania, aggression, psychosis). But what if its proven, well after the your "episode", that you have elevated thyroid hormones? Do they then drop your diagnosis of bipolar? Well, no. They might, and generally would claim you have both, seeing as bipolar is unfalsifiable (ie more of a beleif than a fact), and they want to cover their own arses (you might have a relapse, and for some reason, they think thats more of a problem for them than you) . So even in a case of fairly clear misdiagnosis, they often do not remove the offending bullcrap.

Medical records in general can only be modified by the person that put the original thing in.

As to whether you can avoid your insurance company finding out? Well it depends on how centralised your medical records are in where-ever you live. If they are centralised to the degree that such information is centralised, then you have no hope of avoiding it, unless you disappear from the country.

If however, your medical records are not centralised to a degree where it can be accessed by anyone with permission, then you can simply get a paper version of your notes, throw away all mention of your diagnosis, and give what remains to a new doctor, or simply refuse to have your notes transfered, and tell them manually about any physical conditions, allergies etc.

Sorry thats probably all pretty disappointing. There's alot of people out there who just want to live normal lives, and have no need for mental health services.

This amusing guy however, if indeed his story is true, probably because it was early in his faked diagnosis (harkens back to the unfalsifiable thingo) managed to switch diagnosis :-

factitious-disorder/topic110733.html

This is kind of my story Title="Pills for Your Ills" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UnJ4H8JLmM

Kind of like that nursery ryme 'I don't know why she swallowed the fly, so she swallowed a spider..."

Recovered45 wrote:A really good example is hyperthyroidism. Its frequently misdiagnosed as bipolar (there can be near identical symptoms, high energy, mania, aggression, psychosis). But what if its proven, well after the your "episode", that you have elevated thyroid hormones? Do they then drop your diagnosis of bipolar? Well, no. They might, and generally would claim you have both, seeing as bipolar is unfalsifiable (ie more of a beleif than a fact), and they want to cover their own arses (you might have a relapse, and for some reason, they think thats more of a problem for them than you) . So even in a case of fairly clear misdiagnosis, they often do not remove the offending bullcrap.

I don't want to derail Copy Cat's thread, but you're making some very strong claims here, and I'm not sure on what evidence.

When you say: "They might, and generally would claim you have both" you change from a hypothetical case ("they might") to a statement about general procedure ("generally would").

You conclude by suggesting this a frequent occurrence: "So even in a case of fairly clear misdiagnosis, they often do not remove the offending bullcrap."

I would be fascinated if you could point me to your evidence for this.

Give it a google if your interested. Personal accounts of this, will be your evidence, if your really interested in the topic. There are personal accounts of this out there if you want to look.

Anyway, thats all somewhat self evident to me, on the basis that a diagnosis of bipolar is not falsifiable, and that typically such diagnoses are not changed. Theres a certain level of liability dodging involved in this too, again, basically self-evident.

Its interesting to me, that the literature widely states this as a common misdiagnosis, but nobody ever tested my thyroid before ruling I had bipolar.

Did they test your thyroid hormone levels before your bp diagnosis? free t3, t4, or tsh etc?

How many bp people do you think they get their thyroid hormones checked? hyperthyroid is underdiagnosed, on its own, at a regular GP. I would be very interested to see a study on how common this is at the psychiatrists office. Especially as undiagnosed and untreated hyperthyroid can easily be fatal, and the condition is worsened by lithium. Something liability obsessed medical professionals might want to keep in mind....

Recovered45 wrote:Anyway, thats all somewhat self evident to me, on the basis that a diagnosis of bipolar is not falsifiable, and that typically such diagnoses are not changed. Theres a certain level of liability dodging involved in this too, again, basically self-evident.

With respect, it is not self-evident to me, but I will certainly google, as you suggested.

Recovered45 wrote:Its interesting to me, that the literature widely states this as a common misdiagnosis, but nobody ever tested my thyroid before ruling I had bipolar.

Did they test your thyroid hormone levels before your bp diagnosis? free t3, t4, or tsh etc?

Yes, they tested thyroid levels in my case.

Recovered45 wrote:How many bp people do you think they get their thyroid hormones checked? hyperthyroid is underdiagnosed, on its own, at a regular GP. I would be very interested to see a study on how common this is at the psychiatrists office.

Indeed, that would be an interesting study.

Recovered45 wrote:How many bp people do you think they get their thyroid hormones checked?

Mine gets checked regularly by my psychiatrist, along with a lot of other blood tests.

I am interested in this also. I was wrongly diagnosed bipolar and later ruled out to not have it. is it even possible to have it removed from your record?