Challenging a mental health diagnosis an endo has made

[Pink1123]

Hi how do I challenge a mental health diagnosis that my endo has made please? He refuses to accept my symptoms are thyroid and he doesn't understand my fluctuating results for thyroid which is due to Hashimotos. He then reduced my meds and wrote a mental disorder diagnosis on future letters. I can't believe he deems himself qualified to make a mental health diagnosis! He is aware I have iron deficiency anaemia, vit D deficiency and folate deficiency and he has said my ferritin needs to be 50 or more which it isn't. I don't understand why he is saying these things?

Do I write a letter of complaint to the hospital?

Thanks

[Rmichelle]

Im very sure others will respond to this who are more experienced but i do not think endos are qualified enough to write a mental health report?? How dare he, endos refuse to listern about anything connected to hashis-both my endos will not discuss it and even wrote to my gp saying -patient thinks hashis can fluctuate her levels!!! Idiot him. Most endos will not deal with deficiences either ive had to deal with that myself with help from this site

Makes me wonder what exactly endos do deal with as they are so interested in their babble talk.

Im sure others will lead you down the right path as regards to a complaint😊

[SlowDragon Administrator]

You can ask for/demand politely this to be removed from your record.

An endo is not qualified to diagnose mental health issues

If they want a mental health diagnosis then would have to send you for assessment to mental health specialists. Where you will get a clean bill of health.

Improving low vitamin levels essential and food intolerances likely, most common is gluten,

[Jump1]

Can i ask what you said to.him that made him write that? Did you say you were depressed or anything? I know this illness makes us feel down and depressed it def does me with the hairloss.

But i know antidepressant isnt the solution and i know if i was well i wouldnt feel depressed if my hair wud grow back. I would never in a month of sundays tell them i.was depressed. That is the easy option for them.

Ihave realised pretty early on in this journey that there are only so many times you.can talk to the drs before they start to get frustrated and tell you are fine and then they think to themselves this persin is crazy and annoying get out so i can treat a sick perdon. is a door that is firmly shut unless blood results tell them otherwise. My sister is a gp. I know from personal experience . She dont have a clue and wint admit the drastic change in me. Its all aging and in my head. Shocking. I hope she gets the stress that i had that triggets this in her too.

Waste time going back.and back to a dr that wont listen.

They prob only barely graduated through their degree with a third half of them, yet still fit to diagnose and deterninr soneones quality of life or lack of. The percentage of good drs out of a year group would be low. Same as any other career/course. Drs are ignorant.

Blood resultts arent always right. I know of two peopel recently diagnosed with tumours and all bloods were all clear their gps insisted they were fine.

Can it be removed from your records??? Id just be careful your gp doesnt decide to run with this easy diagnosis.

[Pink1123 in reply to Jump1]

All I said was I feel better on T3. He removed it from my script and then this mental health diagnosis came about

[cwill in reply to Pink1123]

This sounds to me like a battle that is being fought with dirty tactics. How long had you been on T3 meds? That was a trial or something that had been a long term prescription? If you dare to say that you are better on this expensive drug and they then have to prescribe it could that be a reason for a sudden withdrawal and an accusssation that they are not well qualified to make?

You are entitled to fight the T3 withdrawal if you gained from taking it. You are also entitled to see all of your notes and have anything removed that you disagree with. Notes become free after 25 May so my guess is that they are about to be deluged with requests. The ITT campaign group on FB or the Thyroid Patient Advocacy Group can help you with assessing your case for a T3 withdrawal complaint. Re the mental health diagnosis made within a short consultation with no recognised diagnostic tools employed get all the paperwork together and my advice would be mke a complaint to everyone you can think of.

Diagnosing difficult patients as mentally ill, especially women, has a long and terrible history. I suggest watching Hysteria as prep for your complaints (used to be on amazon).

[Pink1123 in reply to cwill]

I was on it for 2 years thanks

[Aurealis]

So sorry Pink1123, how frustrating for you.

Please forgive me for the following (tongue in cheek, so to speak) comment - how about using his comments as an opportunity and asking for a referral to a psychiatrist for a thyroid diagnosis?

- psychiatrists are often well informed about the effects of thyroid on mental health and I believe sometimes prescribe

[marigold22 in reply to Aurealis]

Over the 36 years I was very ill from hypo, in fact undiagnosed Hashi's, I saw two psychiatrists as I truly thought I was insane. I now believe that I had varying degrees of Myxodema Madness. Google it; it was first written about in medical journals/books a long time ago. I had low B vitamins, probably low vitamin D, and probably many other very low nutrients. But despite being told (by me) that I had a thyroid illness, two consultant psychiatrists failed to treat my thyroid and gave me massive doses of anti-depressants. Feel like suing them even to this day to be honest. They both missed the obvious glaring signs.

[Aurealis in reply to marigold22]

Sorry marigold22 - bad suggestion

[Sylvia22]

I had a similar experience and had to get a private diagnosis in the end. They kept saying it was all in my head and not that I was overmedicated. I was proved to be right and then they wonder why I question my GP on dose changes

[Rmichelle]

Gps and endos need to stop treating us like idiots.we know our bodies best, just because they have done the so called training it does not mean they are right-mum was told that she did not have cancer by a gp- she did have a very rare cancer of the womb, my friends son died recently of leukemia and gp said it was just a virus on several trips to the gp, lost a relative too with cancer of the stomach and was tol repeatedly it was ibs, i myself was told i had ibs for years when my gp kept saying no to further testing-it was celiac disease!!

Would i trust a gp or endo-no. 😨 but he has now right on labelling you like that-insist that is removed as he is not qualified to make that judgement, the trouble is they hate it when we question things and have a bit of knowledge then they feel the need to retaliate back as they look stupid. Good luck 😊😊

[serenfach]

I think your first thing would be to contact Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). They can tell you the steps you need to take to get this cleared from your file. You do need it cleared as it would affect every interaction with the medical profession from now on.

Imagine how the Endo would feel if someone suddenly labelled him like this! I am not sure they can be done for libel but worth looking into. If you have legal cover on your house insurance, they may be able to help without costing you anything.

[Lulu2red]

The only way you can get a mental health diagnosis is from an assessment by a psychiatrist. You need to nip this in the bud. Be firm but don't loose your cool. It's disgusting, I've been there. Labelled an aggressive patient because I told the top Endocrinologist at King's College I was still really ill, despite her efforts. She discharged me sick, saying that there can't be much wrong with me as I had a full time job! And that there must be something else going on but had wasted enough time on me. It's probably a gynelogical issue! She wrote to my GP and put a foot note on it " patient was very aggressive, just in case this crops up in the future". My copy of the letter had that bit missing. I only found out years later after requesting all my notes as still extremely ill. Depression is actually relieved by T3 and is a medication used to treat some mood disorders. You GP must refer you for a mental health assessment. Make sure it's a good shrink not a psychologist. They will not hand out a diagnosis of mental health, but I am afraid psychologists don't know what they are talking about half the time, just wannabe shrinks at the end of the day. First though, you can insist on a second opinion from another Endocrinologist, you don't want to deteriorate. What are you taking now? T4 or T3?