Thursday, January 20, 2011

Doctors unlikely to spot Cushing's

That degree on the wall means your physician graduated medical school. It DOES NOT tell you which ones made As and which ones made Ds.

--mm

Physicians can perform poorly when patients need special care, study suggests.

"Physicians did quite well at following guidelines or standard approaches to care, but not so well at figuring out when those approaches were inappropriate because of a particular patient's situation or life context."

So, to me, this reinforces the need for cushing's patients to become an expert about the disease and advocate for the improvement of their health. Docs are less likely to put all of the pieces together, but when they do, the good ones do it in the same amount of time it takes a bad one to blow you off! 

Take a look on the sidebar for the link for Tips to Get Diagnosed Quickly.

Anxiety and Endocrine Disease

This is a fascinating literature review about the classic chicken-and-egg debate for endocrine patients. Doctors insist my depression, weight gain and not wanting to interact with others is related to my ANXIETY instead of my anxiety being one of many symptoms of my ENDOCRINE disorder.

"In reviewing patients who were felt to suffer from psychiatric symptoms caused by primary physical illness, Hall et al found that neurological and endocrine disorders were etiologically responsible for half of the medically induced anxiety symptoms encountered."

HALF?! These MDs need to get with the program! Listen to your patients!  When patients say they feel anxious and depressed and we tell you that we *tried* all of the stress reducing advice and we are still anxious, keep digging and thinking until your patients feel better. What a concept! Please do not make assumptions that we are lying or over-exaggerating just because you don't know the answer. Figure it out, as it is literally the reason you get paid the big bucks.  The weight of this burden should not just fall on our shoulders, but on yours as well.

-mm

"The first step in defining whether an anxiety disorder is due to a general medical condition is to establish the presence of a general medical condition that is often associated with the production of anxiety symptoms. The DSM-IV defines the most common endocrinological conditions associated with anxiety states as hyper- and hypothyroidism, hypoglycemia, pheochromocytoma, and hyperadrenocorticism. Anxiety may also occur following the exogenous administration of estrogens, progesterone, thyroid preparations, insulin, steroids and birth control pills. Popkin, in addressing the issue of endocrine disorders presenting with anxiety, suggests that anxiety states frequently occur in association with adrenal dysfunction, Cushing's Disease, Carcinoid syndrome, hyperparathyroidism, pseudohyperparathyroidism, hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, pancreatic tumors, pheochromocytoma and thyroid diseases including hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism and thyroiditis. Popkin cautions that prospective, carefully controlled studies on the etiology of anxiety in these conditions are lacking. The studies that are cited are almost exclusively case reports. He argues for more structured and careful research into the organic basis of these conditions.

Jefferson and Marshall identified hyperthyroidism, hypoglycemia, pheochromocytoma, and hyperadrenalism as the medical illnesses most often associated with anxiety symptoms and most frequently misdiagnosed initially as a primary anxiety disorder.

Hall et al in a study of medically induced anxiety disorder found thyroid disorders, i.e., hyper- and hypothyroidism and thyroiditis, to be the most frequent medical conditions misdiagnosed as primary anxiety disorder.11 Other common medical causes for anxiety in their study included hypoglycemia, Addison's and Cushing's Disease, hyper- and hypoparathyroidism, and diabetes mellitus. Rarer causes included various virilizing tumors and hypo- and hyperpituitarism.

Differentiating Anxiety Associated with Medical Illnesses from Primary Anxiety Diseases

After the clinician has established the presence of a general medical condition known to be associated with significant anxiety symptoms, he/she should undertake a careful and comprehensive assessment of the factors necessary to link the two conditions. Although there are no absolute guidelines, certain associations are helpful in establishing this connection. Are the onset of the symptoms temporally related? Is there a temporal association between the exacerbation or remission of the general medical condition and the enhancement or abatement of anxiety symptoms? Do anxiety symptoms disappear when the primary medical condition is treated? Are features that are atypical of a primary anxiety disorder present such as the usual age of onset, the initial presentation, type of onset, or an absence of family history? The clinician should also judge whether the disturbances that are present may be better accounted for by the presence of a primary anxiety disorder, a substance induced anxiety disorder, or an adjustment disorder brought on by the diagnosis of a primary medical condition.

In earlier work, reviewing patients who were felt to suffer from psychiatric symptoms caused by primary physical illness, Hall et al found that neurological and endocrine disorders were etiologically responsible for half of the medically induced anxiety symptoms encountered. In comparing these patients to patients with primary anxiety disorders seen in clinic, certain characteristics differentiated the patients with organic anxiety from those who suffered from a primary or psychogenic anxiety disorder. 1.) Patients with anxiety secondary to underlying medical illnesses tended to have disease characteristic fluctuations in the severity and duration of their anxiety or panic attacks. 2.) There was a clear cut association between the progression of their anxiety and their underlying disease. 3.) Medically induced anxiety disorders were most likely to have onset before the age of 18 or after the age of 35 in patients with a negative personal and family psychiatric history of anxiety or affective disorders and in patients who had not previously suffered from anxiety symptoms."