Misdiagnosis of Irritability
Misdiagnosis and Irritability
Mild worm infections undiagnosed in children: Human worm infestations, esp. threadworm, can be overlooked in some cases,
because it may cause only mild or even absent symptoms.
Although the most common symptoms are anal itch (or vaginal itch),
which are obvious in severe cases,
milder conditions may fail to be noticed in children.
In particular, it may interfere with the child's good night's sleep.
Threadworm is a condition to consider in children with symptoms such as bedwetting (enuresis),
difficulty sleeping, irritability, or other sleeping symptoms.
Visual inspection of the region can often see the threadworms, at night when they are active,
but they can also be missed this way, and multiple inspections can be warranted if worms are suspected.
See the introduction to threadworm.
Various mental health symptoms caused by rare epilepsy: Temporal lobe epilepsy is a less common form
of epilepsy that does not have the typical physical seizures.
Patients can suffer from symptoms such as depression, moodiness, anger,
irritability, and misdiagnosis of this condition as depression is common.
Some patients also suffer hallucinations and other similar symptoms, or even
severe psychotic symptoms, making
a misdiagnosis of schizophrenia possible.
Mood changes and behavioral symptoms also make a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder possible.
See the overview of temporal lobe epilespy.
ADHD diagnosis overlooked hidden nutritional disorder: The book "A Dose of Sanity" reports on a case of a boy
diagnosed with ADHD and receiving Ritalin.
His symptoms included tiredness, irritability, poor growth,
and eating dirt and unusual foods (a symptom called "pica").
The corrected diagnosis was iron-deficiency anemia.
RLS sleep disorder causing night-time leg sensations often misdiagnosed: A common but relatively unknown
sleep-related disorder called Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) is often misdiagnosed.
The typical symptoms are night-time tingling, crawling, or burning sensations in the legs,
with the irresistable urge to move the legs.
This need for leg movement leads to tossing and turning, or getting up out of bed,
all of which interferes with the ability to fall asleep.
The sufferer then has the typical symptoms of sleep deprivation during the day: fatigue, tiredness,
morning headaches, irritability, poor concentration and so on.
This condition is sometimes misdiagnosed as other conditions
such as ADHD, sleep disorders, other causes of insomnia, or other causes of leg tingling.
Many patients also suffer from a related disorder called
Periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), which causes leg spasms
or other jerky movements.
See introduction to RLS or introduction to PLMD.
More about Misdiagnosis
» Next page:
Irritability (In A Page: Pediatric Signs and Symptoms)
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