A review by Rutgers Health researchers reveals the psychological damage and health care avoidance that may occur when doctors dismiss, minimize or ignore patients’ symptoms, a phenomenon medical scientists call “symptom invalidation” and patients often call “medical gaslighting.”
The paper in Psychological Bulletin examined 151 qualitative studies representing more than 11,000 individuals with conditions, including fibromyalgia, long COVID, endometriosis, lupus and other difficult-to-diagnose illnesses. “We found that patients can question reality,” said Allyson Bontempo, a postdoctoral fellow at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and lead author of the review. “They ask, ‘Am I making this up? Is this all in my head?’ We also found symptom invalidation is associated with depression, suicidality and health care-related anxiety that actually can rise to the level of trauma responses.”
The research identified four broad categories of harm: emotional states such as self-doubt and shame; healthcare-specific emotional responses, including loss of trust in clinicians; behavioral changes such as avoiding medical care; and diagnostic delays that can worsen conditions. To read the full story.