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Environmental illness and misdiagnosis--a growing problem
1Psychiatry Administration, University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, Iowa City 52242-1057.
Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology : RTP
|August 1, 1993
Summary
Clinical ecologists diagnose environmental illness (EI) using exposure history and testing, recommending avoidance diets. However, research indicates EI patients often have untreated medical or psychiatric disorders, leading to misdiagnosis and harmful iatrogenic disability.
Area of Science:
- Integrative Medicine
- Environmental Medicine
- Psychosomatic Medicine
Background:
- Clinical ecology proposes hypersensitivity to environmental factors causes illness.
- Environmental Illness (EI) is diagnosed via history, provocation testing, and elimination diets.
- Treatments include avoidance, special diets, and symptom neutralization.
Purpose of the Study:
- To critically evaluate the diagnostic and therapeutic approaches of clinical ecology.
- To investigate the underlying conditions of patients diagnosed with environmental illness.
- To assess the potential harms associated with clinical ecology practices.
Main Methods:
- Review of clinical ecology diagnostic criteria and treatment protocols.
- Analysis of research findings on patients diagnosed with environmental illness.
- Comparison of clinical ecology diagnoses with evidence-based medical and psychiatric evaluations.
Main Results:
- Clinical ecology diagnoses lack scientific validation.
- Patients diagnosed with EI frequently present with common, often untreated, psychiatric or medical disorders.
- Clinical ecology treatments can lead to iatrogenic social and occupational disability.
Conclusions:
- Clinical ecology misinterprets symptoms of conventional disorders as environmental hypersensitivity.
- The diagnostic and treatment paradigms of clinical ecology are not supported by scientific evidence.
- Mainstream medical practitioners advise against recognizing EI as a clinical syndrome due to potential patient harm.