lupus

'I believe you' the words patients want to hear from doctors

'I believe you' the words patients want to hear from doctors

A ‘chasm of misunderstanding and miscommunication’ is often experienced between clinicians and patients, leading to autoimmune diseases such as lupus and vasculitis being wrongly diagnosed as psychiatric or psychosomatic conditions, with a profound and lasting impact on patients, researchers have found.

A study involving over 3,000 participants – both patients and clinicians – found that these misdiagnoses (often termed “in your head” by patients) were often associated with long term impacts on patients’ physical and wellbeing and damaged trust in healthcare services.

Time to move on from ‘doctor knows best’, say experts, as study finds clinicians rank patient views as least important in diagnosis

Time to move on from ‘doctor knows best’, say experts, as study finds clinicians rank patient views as least important in diagnosis

Experts today call for more value to be given to patients’ ‘lived experiences’ as a study of over 1,000 patients and clinicians found multiple examples of patient reports being under-valued.

The research, led by a team at the University of Cambridge and Kings’ College London, found that clinicians ranked patient self-assessments as least important in diagnostic decisions, and said that patients both over- and under-played their symptoms more often than patients reported doing so.

Ground-breaking discovery finds new link between autoimmune diseases and a gut bacterium

Ground-breaking discovery finds new link between autoimmune diseases and a gut bacterium

Could microbes in our guts be sending out the wrong message? Queen's University Belfast researchers have, for the first time, found a specific microbe in the gut that pumps out protein molecules that mimic a human protein, causing the human defence system to turn on its own cells by mistake.

New discovery could improve diagnosis and treatment of lupus in black Africans

New discovery could improve diagnosis and treatment of lupus in black Africans

Two variants of an autoimmune disease that affects thousands but is hard to diagnose are relatively common among black Africans, research shows.

The findings, relating to systemic lupus erythematosus, or SLE, could improve diagnosis and treatment of the condition.

They could enable better management of the disease in patients of African descent, particularly in southern Africa, where incidence and mortality rates are relatively high.

THE CONTENT ON THIS WEBSITE SHOULD NOT BE SEEN AS SUBSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE, OR THINK YOU MAY HAVE, LUPUS, ALWAYS SEEK ADVICE FROM A QUALIFIED PHYSICIAN. FIND OUT MORE IN OUR TERMS OF USE.