Guesswork Leads to Multiple Labels, Conflicting Diagnoses

"A child’s problems are now routinely given two or more diagnoses at the same time, like attention deficit and bipolar disorders. And parents of disruptive children in particular — those who once might have been called delinquents, or simply “problem children” — say they hear an alphabet soup of labels that seem to change as often as a child’s shoe size."

The article states that these conflicting diagnoses come from psychiatrists, psycholgists, family doctors, pediatricians, and social workers, "each with their own biases," and notes that, "Psychiatrists have no blood tests or brain scans to diagnose mental disorders."

—from TROUBLED CHILDREN, "What’s Wrong With a Child? Psychiatrists Often Disagree," By Benedict Carey, November 11, 2006, nytimes.com