Overdiagnose

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To identify a condition as present in a patient more often than is clinically justified; to attribute more cases of a disease or disorder than truly exist; to excessively label symptoms as indicative of illness
2. To diagnose a medical condition with excessive frequency beyond what is warranted; to mistakenly declare more instances of a health problem than are actually occurring; to overstate the presence of a disorder in clinical evaluations
3. To assess individuals as having a disease more frequently than appropriate; to report a higher number of cases of a particular illness than is accurate; to overinterpret clinical signs leading to unnecessary diagnoses

Etymology: "Overdiagnose" is a plain formation: the prefix "over-", meaning excessively or too much, attached to "diagnose." The prefix comes from Old English "ofer," which carries the same sense of going beyond a proper measure, as in "overdo" or "overeat." The verb it modifies traces back to Ancient Greek "diagignōskein," built from "dia-," meaning through or apart, and "gignōskein," to know or recognise. The noun "diagnōsis," meaning a discerning or distinguishing judgement, came into Latin from this Greek source, and English later drew on it as "diagnosis" and then the verb "diagnose." The prefix and the base are old, but the combined word is a modern coinage. Its meaning is the medical sense of identifying disease, pushed too far: a clinician who labels ordinary symptoms as illness, or a system that finds more cases of a disorder than actually exist, is said to overdiagnose.

Synonyms: misdiagnose, overinterpret, exaggerate diagnosis

Antonyms: underdiagnose, correctly diagnose