Is there any evidence that patients start exhibiting traits of a certain condition if they are told that they have that condition? If so, are doctors aware of this when seeing patients over a period of time.
I ask because a friend of my had slight mental problems with anger and then goes and sees a psychologist who said he was Bipolar and now since he has a "condition" he is getting more extreme and fitting the characteristics of the condition more.
2006-12-28 14:51:36 · 7 answers · asked by parkdad73 1 in Social Science ➔ Psychology
The term could be 'self fulfilling prophecy' or even 'learned helplessness'.
A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that, in being made, actually causes itself to become true (Wikepaedia).
Learned helplessness is a psychological condition in which a human or animal has learned to believe that it is helpless. It thinks that it has no control over its situation and that whatever it does is futile. As a result it will stay passive when the situation is unpleasant or harmful and damaging. (Wiki again).
Once someone is labelled with a mental disorder, the label stays with them (maybe even forever). Psychologists are very aware of these problems, which is why, a good Psychologist will try to carry out lots of assessment tests of the patient before giving them a label.
You could try to look at the literature on Labelling Theory, Self-fulfilling Prophecies and Learned Helplessness.
2006-12-28 15:01:36 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's certainly possible. It could explained in many ways; I will touch on a couple of them.
For one thing, it could be a hypochondriac effect occurring, in that now that the person has heard from "a reliable source" (the psychologist) that he has a certain disorder, he will evidence certain familiar characteristics of that disorder. Perhaps he finds that he can act in certain ways justifiably, because he has been found to be bipolar. There's no doubt that the placebo effect is very real, and it could be manfiesting itself here.
On the other hand, it's also quite possible that he does indeed have bipolar disorder, and it is simply progressing as time goes on. Deterioration of mental states is very common in a variety of mental disorders, and bipolar is not exempt. More extreme symptoms and further changing of the personality are often to be expected as the disorder matures.
In any case, I don't believe it is something that psychologists document as a point of study. It is certainly documented, as they record just about everything that happens in their sessions, but it is most likely not focused on as correlative.
2006-12-28 23:09:20 · answer #2 · answered by blizzy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes it's possible, A good psychologist can ask a few questions over a period of time and find out. As far as you friend goes if a doctor told him he had bipolar, and he does not have it, the meds he is taking will affect him.
2006-12-28 23:04:33 · answer #3 · answered by lynnn30 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
bi~polar isn't a crime, but u do c that shackles of despair and causing this person to exhibit pushing his wrong buttons is the source, try to be the guy i am from out space and tell him that if he thinks about things that are pushing wrong buttons and teleporting his visuals to project this over and over til his energy to confront it is drained. i haven't the time to write a book so u could Read all about it, so your just going to have this as all u'll ever c me, if the help to your friends responses are in your understanding and u can divert things so his wave electric are moved to what you want to do when he is down on him self by letting either himself or his imagination push wrong buttons in him, make him c him self through a computer principal that there is no emotions in the computer it is all learned behaviorism and by pushing buttons we get pain or pleasure by it but if we let it run on its own it will not report in for duty it will cause conflicts just like if you can remember being obstinate as a child, we can't access old film in our selves so we can't do old reruns unless you program them in to him so program him til he understands what you are doing and then he can do it, once something is learned it can't be unlearned, but it can be feared
2006-12-28 23:45:29 · answer #4 · answered by bev 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, but when they see the phychologist, the psychologist probably recongizes them when he first seems them. And, after they see them time and time again they decided that that patient has a condition.
2006-12-28 22:58:04 · answer #5 · answered by amazon 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I think thats an excellent question. I have seen it happen with one person, but in most cases, not.
2006-12-28 22:55:38 · answer #6 · answered by its_just_me 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, it could very well be happening. It kind of gives him "permission" to act that way.
2006-12-29 01:36:23 · answer #7 · answered by Bre 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋