Unlike a vague wastebasket diagnosis, the diagnostic label arrived at through a process of exclusion may be precise, accurate, and helpful.
[7] Wastebasket diagnoses are often made by medical specialists, and referred back to primary care physicians for long term management.
[citation needed] Common wastebasket diagnoses include: Reactive hypoglycemia has been used as a trashcan diagnosis for people who complain about normal physiological reactions to being hungry.
For example, government-run schools in the United States get additional funding for providing services to students with autism spectrum disorders, so some children with atypical behavior patterns are labeled as having ASD so the school can more easily obtain funding for special education services.
Medicine around the world has a long history of using and abusing the concept of trashcan diagnoses, from "rectifying the humors" to marthambles to neurasthenia to garbled Latin-sounding names which were made up to impress the patient's family.