Diagnosing multiple sclerosis is not a simple process, and even experienced doctors make mistakes. Even with improved testing tools and more detailed diagnostic criteria, MS misdiagnosis remains an important problem in neurology, with significant consequences.
Misdiagnosis is too common in MS
Rates of MS misdiagnosis range from 6 percent to 35 percent, based on a number of studies published between 1985 and 2005. There are several possible diseases that a person misdiagnosed with MS might have instead. Two of the most common missed diagnoses in these studies were psychiatric disease (23-27 percent) and migraine (9-10 percent).
In a more recent study (Solomon 2012), 95.1 percent of neurologists surveyed (n=122) had evaluated a patient, previously diagnosed with MS by another provider, who they “strongly felt did NOT in fact have MS.” Within the preceding year 39.7 percent of respondents estimated that they had seen three to five such patients. More than one-third (34.4 percent) reported seeing six or more misdiagnosed patients in the last year, including 20 (17.2 percent) respondents who had seen 10 or more such patients.
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Problems with Misdiagnosis of MS: But I Have ALL the Symptoms of MS!!
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