Wastebasket_diagnosis
Wastebasket diagnosis
Type of medical diagnosis
A wastebasket diagnosis or trashcan diagnosis is a vague diagnosis given to a patient or to medical records department for essentially non-medical reasons.[1] It may be given when the patient has an obvious but unidentifiable medical problem, when a doctor wants to reassure an anxious patient about the doctor's belief in the existence of reported symptoms, when a patient pressures a doctor for a label, or when a doctor wants to facilitate bureaucratic approval of treatment.
It has been suggested that this article be merged into diagnosis of exclusion. (Discuss) Proposed since March 2024. |
The term may also be used pejoratively to describe disputed medical conditions.[2][3][4][5][6] In this sense, the term implies that the condition has not been properly classified. It can carry a connotation that the prognosis of individuals with the condition are more heterogeneous than would be associated with a more precisely defined clinical entry.[7] As diagnostic tools improve, it is possible for these kinds of wastebasket diagnoses to be properly defined and reclassified as clinical diagnoses.[8] Wastebasket diagnoses are often made by medical specialists, and referred back to primary care physicians for long term management.