Date of Award

Spring 2020

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology; College of Arts & Sciences

First Advisor

Dr. Alison Clabaugh

Abstract

Diagnostic overshadowing in mentally ill patients is the misattribution of physical illness to a preexisting mental health condition. This phenomenon contributes to the fact that patients with mental illness to receive diagnoses later, receive less treatment, and live with untreated chronic conditions. The societal attitudes on mental illness associate sufferers with negativity, danger, fear, and strangeness. This stigma could affect the formation of a realistic schema for mentally ill patients, even in a medical context. Doctors who view mental illness with the misinformed stereotypes may only see the patient for that stereotype and not as a whole. A detriment to the formation of the therapeutic relationship further hinders the process of care. Little research exists for DO, and currently no research covers the possible cause of and solutions to diagnostic overshadowing. The current review aims to discover a possible model for the way DO occurs and to offer potential methods of combating the issue. Further, the importance of addressing societal stigma, more comprehensive integration of psychology and medicine, and proper mental illness education is addressed.

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"It's All In Your Head": Diagnostic Overshadowing and Mental Illness

Diagnostic overshadowing in mentally ill patients is the misattribution of physical illness to a preexisting mental health condition. This phenomenon contributes to the fact that patients with mental illness to receive diagnoses later, receive less treatment, and live with untreated chronic conditions. The societal attitudes on mental illness associate sufferers with negativity, danger, fear, and strangeness. This stigma could affect the formation of a realistic schema for mentally ill patients, even in a medical context. Doctors who view mental illness with the misinformed stereotypes may only see the patient for that stereotype and not as a whole. A detriment to the formation of the therapeutic relationship further hinders the process of care. Little research exists for DO, and currently no research covers the possible cause of and solutions to diagnostic overshadowing. The current review aims to discover a possible model for the way DO occurs and to offer potential methods of combating the issue. Further, the importance of addressing societal stigma, more comprehensive integration of psychology and medicine, and proper mental illness education is addressed.