It’s one thing to cope with a new rare disease diagnosis. It’s another entirely to cope with that diagnosis and then four years later learn that diagnosis is incorrect and you actually have a different disease which necessitates a completely different therapeutic regime. A recent study has shown an overwhelming amount of individuals have been incorrectly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). Four years is the average length of time these patients live with “MS” before they receive their correct diagnosis.
The Study
The problem is, MS symptoms often correspond to other diseases as well. These include migraines, stroke, as well as a vitamin B12 deficiency. However, in theory, physicians are supposed to rule out conditions like these before giving a MS diagnosis.
Researchers studied 241 individuals who were diagnosed with MS and referred to MS specialty clinics at both UCLA and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. This research study lasted one year.
Results showed that 18% of the patients, or 1 in every 5, were incorrectly diagnosed with MS. 72% of the individuals who received an incorrect diagnosis were also incorrectly prescribed a therapy meant for MS. 48% of the individuals were specifically given a treatment which is associated with risk for developing progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy.
The most common misdiagnoses were as follows-
- Migraine: 16%
- Radiologically isolated syndrome: 9%
- Spondylopathy: 7%
- Neuropathy: 7%
This study was published in the journal Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders.
Why It’s an Issue
There are many reasons misdiagnosis is an issue. For starters, it can affect patients psychologically and impair their quality of life. Secondly, it can have a huge impact medically- increasing healthcare costs and even morbidity. Researchers from this study estimate that in their evaluation alone, 10 million dollars worth of mis-prescribed MS treatments had been utilized for patients.
Another huge issue revolves around side effects. In a world where side effects are commonplace for so many medications, patients certainly shouldn’t need to suffer side effects for treatments that aren’t even effective for them. And of course we can’t forget to mention that a misdiagnosis and a prescription of an ineffective treatment also means that the patient isn’t receiving the treatment that would be effective.
So what’s the solution? Point blank- we need to conduct more research. If we can find new biomarkers we may be able to increase the rate of successful diagnoses. Researchers also say that the improvement of imaging techniques could help improve the process as well.
You can read more about this issue here.
