The question we should be asking isn't how easy is it to diagnose the X most common conditions. The question should be given someone goes to a doctor, what's t

The question we should be asking isn't how easy is it to diagnose the X most common conditions. The question should be given someone goes to a doctor, what's the probability that their condition will be misdiagnosed. And further, what is the lifetime probability that someone will be misdiagnosed? Those numbers, I would wager, are significantly higher than the probability that anyone will be misdiagnosed with diabeetes, heart failure, obesity, arthritis, or hearing loss. Note, however, I've left off depression. This one actually does get missed somewhat frequently by primary physicians, in part because they don't think to screen for it, or they don't screen for it at an initial visit. Primary specialists tend to look for physical conditions first before moving on to mental health conditions. Continuing with the article's theme about women being misdiagnosed frequently, here's an abstract that notes depression in female patients being misdiagnosed at a rate of 30-50%: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953696001591 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02779.... So lets keep in mind that reliability of diagnosis of individual conditions, however common they may be, may have relatively little to do with the overall lifetime probability that someone will be misdiagnosed at some point in their life. Edit: Some even more shocking mental health misdiagnosis statistics from https://justpoint.com/knowledge-base/everything-you-need-to-know-about-mental-health-misdiagnosis/ https://justpoint.com/knowledge-base/everything-you-need-to-... > Misdiagnosis rates for major depressive disorders were at 65.9%, > Misdiagnosis for Bipolar disorders was at 92.7 percent, Panic disorder was at 85.8%, generalized anxiety disorder was 71.0 percent, and > Social anxiety disorder was 97.8%. Given that 1 out of 2 people will develop a diagnosable mental health issue in their lifetime according to https://hms.harvard.edu/news/half-worlds-population-will-experience-mental-health-disorder https://hms.harvard.edu/news/half-worlds-population-will-exp... this suggests a fairly high rate of overall misdiagnosis.