Patients with mental illness are at greater risk of diagnostic overshadowing, or the tendency to assign symptoms to the mental illness rather than to a potential physical illness. This diagnostic overshadowing can result in serious physical conditions being diagnosed at later stages where fewer treatment options may be available. This randomized study asked physicians to diagnose a hypothetical patient; the cases were identical except one patient had a prior diagnosis of depression. The patient with depression was rated as less likeable, and physicians ordered fewer diagnostic tests for her.