United States: Patients with autoimmune illnesses such as lupus and vasculitis often encounter wrong psychiatric or psychosomatic diagnoses because of unexplained misunderstandings in interactions with clinicians as experts report found,
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The research with more than 3,000 participants showed that medical errors commonly result in permanent physical consequences that deteriorate medical service reliability.
The researchers demand raised awareness about disease symptoms among medical professionals because such disorders are challenging to diagnose but need better patient support.
About autoimmune disorders
Autoimmune rheumatic disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, together with vasculitis, represent chronic inflammatory conditions that assault the immune system before spreading damage to multiple body regions, eurekalert.org reported.
The condition proves difficult to detect because its diverse set of symptoms includes problems that stay hidden, like profound tiredness and depressive feelings.
Dr Melanie Sloan conducted a study at the University of Cambridge involving 1,500 patients in each group and conducted extensive interviews with 67 patients together with 50 clinicians. Research has recently appeared on the rheumatology issue.
Misdiagnoses by doctors
The experience of being misdiagnosed with psychosomatic or mental health conditions for autoimmune disease resulted in patients developing greater depression, increased anxiety, and reduced mental well-being.
In one case, one patient with multiple autoimmune diseases noted, “One doctor told me I was making myself feel pain, and I still can’t forget those words. Telling me I’m doing it to myself has made me very anxious and depressed.”
The self-worth of over 80 percent of patients suffered due to wrong diagnosis, and medical practitioners reported that 72 percent of patients continued to be distressed by the incorrect diagnosis even years afterward, as eurekalert.org reported.
Patients who received incorrect diagnoses expressed dissatisfaction towards medical care in every domain and developed doctor skepticism and symptom underreporting, which resulted in healthcare service avoidance.
It “has damaged my trust and courage in telling doctors very much. I even stopped taking my immunosuppressive medicine because of those words,” another patient reported.
Furthermore, “I don’t deserve help because this is a disease I’ve brought on myself. You go back to those initial diagnoses; you’ve always got their voices in your head, saying you’re doing this to yourself. You just can’t ever shake that. I’ve tried so hard,” while following these types of misdiagnoses, patients often then blamed themselves for their condition, as one individual described.