Dear Luise - a sad and scary story about a young woman who was misdiagnosed

@Porcospino (31365)
Denmark
August 8, 2015 8:34am CST
I recently read a Danish book called "Kaere Luise" The title means "Dear Luise" and it is written by a woman called Dorrit Cato Christensen. Dorrit had a daughter called Luise and Luise died in 2005. Luise was misdiagnosed several times. As a child she was diagnosed with epilepsy and she received large doses of antiepileptic medication. The medication made her very ill, but the doctors believed that it helped her and they kept increasing the doses. Later the psychiatrists believed that she had schizophrenia and they prescribed large doses of antipsychotic medicine. Again the medication made her very ill. Luise started hallucinating. The psychiarists believed that her hallucinations were caused by her schizophrenia, and in order to remove the hallucinations they increased the doses of antipsychotic medication. The hallucinations were actually side effects of the antipsychotic medication, and more medication only made the situation worse. Her mother often told the doctors that the medication made her daughter ill, but the psychiatrists didn't listen to her and they kept increasing the doses of antipsychotic medication. In 2005 Luise died from medicine poisoning. It is a very sad and scary story. Dorrit believes that her daughter had Asperger's syndrome and not schizophrenia, but she never received the right diagnosis. Luise was born in the early 70's and at in her childhood Asperger's syndrome didn't exist as a separate disorder. In 2004 Luise read about Asperger's syndrome and she recognized the description. Unfortunately Luise isn't the only person who has been misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. It has happened to other people as well. They had Asperger's syndrome, but the doctors believed that they had schizophrenia. They received antipsychotic medication that they didn't need, and in some case the medication had irreversible side effects. What you think about her story?
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