What Is Differential Diagnosis Process

In medicine a differential diagnosis is the distinguishing of a particular disease or condition from others that present similar clinical features.

What is differential diagnosis process. Depending on items like medical history symptoms test results own medical knowledge and or input from colleagues doctors will usually come up with a handful of possible diagnoses for a particular condition. Differential diagnosis generating a differential diagnosis that is developing a list of the possible conditions that might produce a patient s symptoms and signs is an important part of clinical reasoning. It s based off of the facts obtained from your symptoms medical history basic laboratory. Differential diagnosis that is the creation of a list of suspected diseases is important as it guides us in looking for these diseases in a patient during diagnosis.

The working diagnosis may be either a list of potential diagnoses a differential diagnosis or a single potential diagnosis. Most differential diagnoses include a physical exam and a health history. It enables appropriate testing to rule out possibilities and confirm a final diagnosis. Differential diagnosis is the process of determining a specific diagnosis by systematically comparing similar diagnoses.

A differential diagnosis is used to help diagnose physical or mental health disorders that cause similar symptoms. How will my provider make a differential diagnosis. That process of elimination is called differential diagnosis ultimately they will be left with one diagnosis and that s the one they give you. Differential diagnostic procedures are used by physicians to diagnose the specific disease in a patient or at least to eliminate any imminently life threatening conditions.

During a health history you ll be asked about your symptoms lifestyle and previous health problems. This process can be divided into six steps. This phase of the diagnostic process is arguably the most critical because errors that occur during the earlier steps history exam symptom evaluation are compounded and result in a differential diagnosis that is either too narrow or simply off target. It involves making a list of all possible differential diagnosis is a process used by doctors to establish which mental health disorder is causing a patient s symptoms.

Then one by one using those same clues they will begin to narrow down the list by finding clues that don t fit. Differential diagnosis ensures that doctors consider all possibilities before they make a diagnosis for a patient s illness. If a disease is not included in differential diagnosis it is not likely to be diagnosed.