Stupid Study

scoobyjude · Post by **scoobyjude** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:42 pm

Well it's good that she has you looking out for her. I hope that she stays well and never has to learn a thing. Sometimes I wish I hadn't been so eager to learn all the frightening facts. It'd be a lot easier to not know what might happen.

Lyon · Post by **Lyon** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:10 pm

EXACTLY!

Bob

Elia · Post by **Elia** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 6:42 pm

I do recognise that the paper referred to in the opening post addressed the issue of patients presenting with M.S.-type symptoms subsequently discovered to be psychosomatic in origin.

However there was an Israeli study (I apologise for not being able to recollect the authors or provide links) which provided statistics on the diagnostic history of patients now formally diagnosed with M.S. Apparently there was a preponderance of female patients whose symptoms had initially been incorrectly attributed to psychiatric disorders (whereas the male patients' initial misdiagnoses were more identified as musculo-skeletal etc).

Given the extraordinarily protracted period it can take to arrive at a definite diagnosis of M.S. it concerns me that studies of this nature could exacerbate assumptions of psychosomatic etiology. Depression and cognitive deterioration may not be recognised as being endogenous. Pseudobulbar effect, for example, can be mistaken for emotional lability.

Elia

Lyon · Post by **Lyon** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 8:31 pm

Elia wrote:Given the extraordinarily protracted period it can take to arrive at a definite diagnosis of M.S. it concerns me that studies of this nature could exacerbate assumptions of psychosomatic etiology. Depression and cognitive deterioration may not be recognised as being endogenous. Pseudobulbar effect, for example, can be mistaken for emotional lability.

Hi Elia,
I can't disagree but I think (and hope) that the increasing reliance on MRI for diagnosis and the increasingly discerning MRI imaging will minimize or eliminate that.
Bob

scoobyjude · Post by **scoobyjude** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 10:43 am

Elia, that was how I felt when I first read the story and it made me quite angry. When I took a step back and re-read the study it still kind of made me mad because I think it was a little misleading. I know their intention was not to prove us all mentally unstable but rather to determine if those not offically dxed truly had MS or a psychiatric disorder. Yet even the fact that such a study exists might leave us all open to doubt from the outside world. I'm not sure the true point is clear after reading just the summary.