One woman says she received several misdiagnoses over 15 years before being correctly diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Primary care providers may only be able to spend 15 minutes talking with patients, not enough time to diagnosis a mental health condition. Another common reason misdiagnoses happen is “not because an evaluator did something wrong; it’s because symptoms tend to evolve over time,” explains Christine Crawford, MD, MPH, associate medical director of NAMI. Dr. Crawford adds, “A lot of providers are getting only a cross-sectional snapshot of what is going on in the person in front of them.” A lengthy evaluation with a mental health professional is often needed to make a psychiatric diagnosis like bipolar disorder.
