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Undiagnosed Psychiatric Patients

Part Iii: the Undiagnosable Patient

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Amos Welner
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, U.S.A.
Jay L. Liss
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, U.S.A.
Eli Robins
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, U.S.A.

Extract

It has been shown in a record study (Welner, Liss, Robins and Richardson, 1972), and confirmed in a follow-up study using a blind structured interview (liss, Welner, and Robins, 1972), that most of those in-patients in our studies who were discharged without a diagnosis met the criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis when rigorous criteria were used (Feighner, Robins, Guze, Woodruff, Winokur and Munoz, 1972). However, using methods and evidence from these studies, out of the 109 patients who were followed-up for a mean period of 39 months, 25 patients were conspicuous in that even after initial or repeated admissions to hospital, after their records were reviewed, and after a follow-up study, they still remained undiagnosable. It was the purpose of this study to describe and evaluate in detail this group of 25 patients with particular reference to the possible reasons why they remained undiagnosed and therefore were defined by us as ‘undiagnosable’.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1973 

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References

DMS II, Diagnostic and Statistic Manual, American Psychiatric Association (1968). Washington, D.G. Google Scholar
Feighner, J., Robins, F., Guze, S., Woodruff, R., Winokur, G., and Munoz, R. (1972). ‘Diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research.’ Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 5763.Google Scholar
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Welner, A., Liss, J., Robins, E., and Richardson, M. (1972). ‘Undiagnosed psychiatric patients. Part I: Record study.’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 120, 315–9.Google Scholar
Welner, A., Liss, J., Robins, E., and Richardson, M. (1972). ‘Psychiatric symptoms in white and black in-patients. II: Follow-up study.’ Submitted for publication.Google Scholar
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