ABSTRACT

The difficulty of distinguishing between genuine disorder and characteristics that can be attributed to high IQ increases the likelihood of diagnostic error by mental health practitioners. This mixed methods study explores the possibility of misdiagnosis of high IQ youth by mental health professionals. Participants were private practice mental health professionals (n = 330) who were presented with case study vignettes illustrating high IQ youth exhibiting characteristics associated with their population. Participants then completed a questionnaire and provided an assessment of the hypothetical client. Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis was utilized to develop a decision tree to predict the likelihood of a diagnosis of disorder being rendered for high IQ youth experiencing behavioral or emotional issues related to their intelligence. We also examined the stated rationale of the participants in arriving at their clinical judgments to determine what themes and commonalities emerged. The study found that, regardless of whether high IQ is suggested as a possible explanation of the presenting issues of a high IQ youth, mental health clinicians still leaned toward some type of diagnosis of disorder (82.9% without suggestion of high IQ vs. 78.4% with suggestion, difference 4.5%). The results of this study provide much-needed empirical exploration of the concern for misdiagnosis of high IQ youth and inform clinical practice and education.

摘要

区分真正的疾病和可归因于高智商的特征的困难增加了心理健康从业人员诊断错误的可能性。这项混合方法研究探索了精神卫生专业人员误诊高智商青年的可能性。参加者是私人执业的精神卫生专业人员（n= 330），他们接受了案例研究小插曲，这些插图说明了智商高的年轻人表现出与人口有关的特征。然后，参与者填写了一份问卷，并对假设的客户进行了评估。利用分类和回归树（CART）分析来开发决策树，以预测对于智商较高的年轻人（与他们的智力有关的行为或情感问题）进行疾病诊断的可能性。我们还检查了参与者在做出临床判断时所陈述的基本原理，以确定出现了哪些主题和共同点。研究发现，无论是否建议使用高智商来解释高智商青年的问题，精神卫生临床医生仍然倾向于某种类型的疾病诊断（82.9％的人没有高智商的建议，而78.4％的人建议的，差异为4.5％）。这项研究的结果提供了急需的对高智商青年误诊的关注的经验探索，并为临床实践和教育提供了信息。