misdiagnosis

By Sandra G. Boodman

Last week, the Alzheimer's Foundation of America released a study saying many caregivers initially mistake certain symptoms of Alzheimer's disease for "normal aging." But surely most doctors would fare better at diagnosing the disease, right? Maybe not. In a survey of nearly 1,000 physicians from five countries, nearly half said that Alzheimer's often gets misdiagnosed. And when proper diagnosis does occur, it's "always" or "often" too late to intervene in a meaningful way.

You would think that patients in a hospital's intensive care unit would be the least likely to worsen or die simply because someone misdiagnosed their condition.