Preventing Misdiagnosis of Women

Preventing Misdiagnosis of Women PDF Author: Elizabeth A. Klonoff
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780761900474
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
Some clients don't respond to a therapist's chosen treatment for a specific mental disorder. Could there be a physical disorder that is causing psychiatric symptoms? How can a therapist distinguish between similar psychiatric and physical disorders to arrive at the correct diagnosis, refer on, and/or suggest appropriate treatment? Preventing Misdiagnosis of Women gives the therapist the foundation for identifying those physiological disorders that may be at the root of the mental problems presented by women clients. Hyperthyroidism, for example, can result in depression and anxiety, and temporal lobe epilepsy can manifest itself with the same symptoms as bipolar disorder. This special guidebook sorts out potential mix-ups by providing detailed cases and illustrations, a quick reference table for checking symptoms, and a glossary. Making technical information clear and concise, the authors cover endocrinological--including thyroid, adrenal, pituitary, and parathyroid systems--and brain seizure problems as well as other diseases--such as multiple sclerosis, mitral heart valve prolapse, and lupus erythematosus. They offer a basic overview of the systems and organs involved and focus on how particular malfunctions can result in serious behavioral problems. A guide to providing the best and most effective care to women clients, Preventing Misdiagnosis of Women presents important information about assessment and interfacing with medical professionals. All mental health and helping professionals will find this book invaluable, as will students in clinical/counseling psychology, health psychology, social work, and gender studies.

Preventing Misdiagnosis of Women

Preventing Misdiagnosis of Women PDF Author: Elizabeth A. Klonoff
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780761900474
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 190

Get Book

Book Description
Some clients don't respond to a therapist's chosen treatment for a specific mental disorder. Could there be a physical disorder that is causing psychiatric symptoms? How can a therapist distinguish between similar psychiatric and physical disorders to arrive at the correct diagnosis, refer on, and/or suggest appropriate treatment? Preventing Misdiagnosis of Women gives the therapist the foundation for identifying those physiological disorders that may be at the root of the mental problems presented by women clients. Hyperthyroidism, for example, can result in depression and anxiety, and temporal lobe epilepsy can manifest itself with the same symptoms as bipolar disorder. This special guidebook sorts out potential mix-ups by providing detailed cases and illustrations, a quick reference table for checking symptoms, and a glossary. Making technical information clear and concise, the authors cover endocrinological--including thyroid, adrenal, pituitary, and parathyroid systems--and brain seizure problems as well as other diseases--such as multiple sclerosis, mitral heart valve prolapse, and lupus erythematosus. They offer a basic overview of the systems and organs involved and focus on how particular malfunctions can result in serious behavioral problems. A guide to providing the best and most effective care to women clients, Preventing Misdiagnosis of Women presents important information about assessment and interfacing with medical professionals. All mental health and helping professionals will find this book invaluable, as will students in clinical/counseling psychology, health psychology, social work, and gender studies.

Unwell Women

Unwell Women PDF Author: Elinor Cleghorn
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593182979
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
A trailblazing, conversation-starting history of women’s health—from the earliest medical ideas about women’s illnesses to hormones and autoimmune diseases—brought together in a fascinating sweeping narrative. Elinor Cleghorn became an unwell woman ten years ago. She was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease after a long period of being told her symptoms were anything from psychosomatic to a possible pregnancy. As Elinor learned to live with her unpredictable disease she turned to history for answers, and found an enraging legacy of suffering, mystification, and misdiagnosis. In Unwell Women, Elinor Cleghorn traces the almost unbelievable history of how medicine has failed women by treating their bodies as alien and other, often to perilous effect. The result is an authoritative and groundbreaking exploration of the relationship between women and medical practice, from the "wandering womb" of Ancient Greece to the rise of witch trials across Europe, and from the dawn of hysteria as a catchall for difficult-to-diagnose disorders to the first forays into autoimmunity and the shifting understanding of hormones, menstruation, menopause, and conditions like endometriosis. Packed with character studies and case histories of women who have suffered, challenged, and rewritten medical orthodoxy—and the men who controlled their fate—this is a revolutionary examination of the relationship between women, illness, and medicine. With these case histories, Elinor pays homage to the women who suffered so strides could be made, and shows how being unwell has become normalized in society and culture, where women have long been distrusted as reliable narrators of their own bodies and pain. But the time for real change is long overdue: answers reside in the body, in the testimonies of unwell women—and their lives depend on medicine learning to listen.

Improving Diagnosis in Health Care

Improving Diagnosis in Health Care PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309377722
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 473

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Book Description
Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. According to Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients. It is likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. Diagnostic errors may cause harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment, providing unnecessary or harmful treatment, or resulting in psychological or financial repercussions. The committee concluded that improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative. Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, a continuation of the landmark Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), finds that diagnosis-and, in particular, the occurrence of diagnostic errorsâ€"has been largely unappreciated in efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, diagnostic errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity. Just as the diagnostic process is a collaborative activity, improving diagnosis will require collaboration and a widespread commitment to change among health care professionals, health care organizations, patients and their families, researchers, and policy makers. The recommendations of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care contribute to the growing momentum for change in this crucial area of health care quality and safety.

Diagnosis Female

Diagnosis Female PDF Author: Emily Dwass
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 153811447X
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
Why do so many women have trouble getting effective and compassionate medical treatment? Diagnosis Female examines this widespread problem, with a focus on misdiagnosis and gender bias. The book zeroes in on specialties where women are more likely to encounter particularly troubling roadblocks: cardiology, neurology, chronic diseases and obstetrics/gynecology. All too often, when doctors can’t figure out what is going on, women receive a diagnosis from the “all in her head” column — this pattern is even worse for women of color, who may face significant challenges in medical settings. Throughout the work, Emily Dwass profiles women whose stories illustrate how medical practitioners often dismiss their claims or disregard their symptoms. Because women were excluded from important medical research for centuries, doctors don’t always recognize that male symptoms and female symptoms can vary from issue to issue. Even today, most diagnostic tests and treatment plans are based on studies done on men. Throughout the book, women state that their voices do not matter, or worse, their concerns are greeted with skepticism or simply ignored when they seek help. The results can be devastating and long-lasting. Examining the bias inherent in the system, Dwass offers measures women can take to protect their health and receive better care. She offers advice, too, for the medical community in addressing the problem, so that outcomes can improve all around. If you’re a woman, and you seek medical care, this book is a must-read. Your health depends upon it.

When Doctors Don't Listen

When Doctors Don't Listen PDF Author: Dr. Leana Wen
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0312594917
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Discusses how to avoid harmful medical mistakes, offering advice on such topics as working with a busy doctor, communicating the full story of an illness, evaluating test risks, and obtaining a working diagnosis.

Doing Harm

Doing Harm PDF Author: Maya Dusenbery
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062470817
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
Editor of the award-winning site Feministing.com, Maya Dusenbery brings together scientific and sociological research, interviews with doctors and researchers, and personal stories from women across the country to provide the first comprehensive, accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women today. In Doing Harm, Dusenbery explores the deep, systemic problems that underlie women’s experiences of feeling dismissed by the medical system. Women have been discharged from the emergency room mid-heart attack with a prescription for anti-anxiety meds, while others with autoimmune diseases have been labeled “chronic complainers” for years before being properly diagnosed. Women with endometriosis have been told they are just overreacting to “normal” menstrual cramps, while still others have “contested” illnesses like chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia that, dogged by psychosomatic suspicions, have yet to be fully accepted as “real” diseases by the whole of the profession. An eye-opening read for patients and health care providers alike, Doing Harm shows how women suffer because the medical community knows relatively less about their diseases and bodies and too often doesn’t trust their reports of their symptoms. The research community has neglected conditions that disproportionately affect women and paid little attention to biological differences between the sexes in everything from drug metabolism to the disease factors—even the symptoms of a heart attack. Meanwhile, a long history of viewing women as especially prone to “hysteria” reverberates to the present day, leaving women battling against a stereotype that they’re hypochondriacs whose ailments are likely to be “all in their heads.” Offering a clear-eyed explanation of the root causes of this insidious and entrenched bias and laying out its sometimes catastrophic consequences, Doing Harm is a rallying wake-up call that will change the way we look at health care for women.

Invisible Women

Invisible Women PDF Author: Caroline Criado Perez
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1683353145
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
#1 International Bestseller Winner of the 2019 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award Winner of the 2019 Royal Society Science Book Prize A landmark, prize-winning, international bestselling examination of how a gender gap in data perpetuates bias and disadvantages women, now in paperback Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development to health care to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this insidious bias, in time, in money, and often with their lives. Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates this shocking root cause of gender inequality in the award-winning, #1 international bestseller Invisible Women. Examining the home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more, Criado Perez unearths a dangerous pattern in data and its consequences on women’s lives. Product designers use a “one-size-fits-all” approach to everything from pianos to cell phones to voice recognition software, when in fact this approach is designed to fit men. Cities prioritize men’s needs when designing public transportation, roads, and even snow removal, neglecting to consider women’s safety or unique responsibilities and travel patterns. And in medical research, women have largely been excluded from studies and textbooks, leaving them chronically misunderstood, mistreated, and misdiagnosed. Built on hundreds of studies in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, highly readable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.

Overdiagnosed

Overdiagnosed PDF Author: H. Gilbert Welch
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807021997
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
An exposé on Big Pharma and the American healthcare system’s zeal for excessive medical testing, from a nationally recognized expert More screening doesn’t lead to better health—but can turn healthy people into patients. Going against the conventional wisdom reinforced by the medical establishment and Big Pharma that more screening is the best preventative medicine, Dr. Gilbert Welch builds a compelling counterargument that what we need are fewer, not more, diagnoses. Documenting the excesses of American medical practice that labels far too many of us as sick, Welch examines the social, ethical, and economic ramifications of a health-care system that unnecessarily diagnoses and treats patients, most of whom will not benefit from treatment, might be harmed by it, and would arguably be better off without screening. Drawing on 25 years of medical practice and research on the effects of medical testing, Welch explains in a straightforward, jargon-free style how the cutoffs for treating a person with “abnormal” test results have been drastically lowered just when technological advances have allowed us to see more and more “abnormalities,” many of which will pose fewer health complications than the procedures that ostensibly cure them. Citing studies that show that 10% of 2,000 healthy people were found to have had silent strokes, and that well over half of men over age sixty have traces of prostate cancer but no impairment, Welch reveals overdiagnosis to be rampant for numerous conditions and diseases, including diabetes, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, gallstones, abdominal aortic aneuryisms, blood clots, as well as skin, prostate, breast, and lung cancers. With genetic and prenatal screening now common, patients are being diagnosed not with disease but with “pre-disease” or for being at “high risk” of developing disease. Revealing the economic and medical forces that contribute to overdiagnosis, Welch makes a reasoned call for change that would save us from countless unneeded surgeries, excessive worry, and exorbitant costs, all while maintaining a balanced view of both the potential benefits and harms of diagnosis. Drawing on data, clinical studies, and anecdotes from his own practice, Welch builds a solid, accessible case against the belief that more screening always improves health care.

Black Women's Health

Black Women's Health PDF Author: Hope Landrine
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1135065047
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
In this special issue, top researchers from a diversity of disciplines provide an overview of and insights into the major social, cultural, and structural variables that play a role in Black women's poor health, and differential morbidity and mortality. The articles focus on the major threats to Black women's health such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, violence, and AIDS, and utilize a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods from medicine, psychology, sociology, and feminist analysis. Among the articles are: * An examination of the role of Black women's cultural and ethnomedical beliefs in their use of cancer screening by Laurie Hoffman-Goetz and Sherry Mills of the National Cancer Institute; * An empirical analysis of Black women's utilization of health services entailing more than 18,000 women by Lonnie Snowden and his colleagues at the University of California-Berkeley Center for Mental Health Services Research; * A comprehensive review and empirical analysis of the role of violence in Black women's health by Nancy Felipe Russo (Arizona State University), Mary Koss (University of Arizona), and Gwen Keita (APA Office on Women); * An empirical investigation of the role of social and contextual variables in HIV risk among low-income Black women by Kathleen Sikkema, Timothy Heckman, and Jeffrey Kelly of the Center for AIDS Intervention Research, Medical College of Wisconsin. Other articles include comprehensive and critical analyses and reviews of diabetes, breast cancer risk perceptions, and obesity among Black women, as well as analyses of Black women's exclusion from research in medicine, women's health, health psychology, and behavioral medicine. The first issue of any psychology journal to be devoted to the health of Black women, this special issue is a step in the direction of redressing the long-overdue neglect of Black women's health. It provides a cogent overview of the state of Black women's health, numerous empirical investigations, and clear suggestions for future research.

Encyclopedia of Women and Gender, Two-Volume Set

Encyclopedia of Women and Gender, Two-Volume Set PDF Author: Judith Worell
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0080548490
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 1293

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Book Description
The study of gender differences began in earnest in the 1970s and has since increased dramatically to infiltrate virtually all fields of study in the social and behavioral sciences. Along the way, it was discovered that while women very often think and behave differently than do men, industrialized societies cater to masculine perspectives. The "Psychology of Women" emerged as a field of study focusing on just those areas in which women most often butted against assumed roles. And similarly, in the 1990s, the "Psychology of Men" emerged to focus on the same issues for men. The Encyclopedia of Gender covers all three areas under one cover, discussing psychological differences in personality, cognition, and behavior, as well as biologically based differences and how those differences impact behavior. Coverage includes studies of these differences in applied settings such as education, business, the home, in politics, sports competition, etc. Key Features * Over 100 In-depth chapters by leading scholars in the psychology of women and gender * Addresses critical questions of similarities and differences in gendering across diverse groups, challenging myths about gender polarization and the "Venus/Mars" distinction * Broad coverage of topics from theory and method to development, personality, violence, sexuality, close relationships, work, health, and social policy * Sensitive attention to multicultural and cross-cultural research * Clearly written, readable, comprehensive, with helpful guides (outline, glossary, reference list) * Raises difficult questions related to power, inequality, ethics, and social justice * Challenges the reader to revise established "truths" and to seek further information * Maintains a feminist and woman-centered focus