99 Problems but They’re All Causally Related: Multiple Independent, Symptomatic Conditions Are Rarely Diagnosed

Newswise — Doctors must balance trying to find one diagnosis that explains all of a patient’s symptoms, and acknowledging that multiple conditions can co-occur. The authors sought to better understand multiple diagnoses by reviewing case reports. Multiple diagnoses usually involved cases in which one disease caused another, the second disease was a pre-existing condition, or the second condition had no symptoms and was discovered incidentally. Multiple independent symptomatic diseases were a rare minority.