Medical Gaslighitng Causes Harm to Patients

     In the 1990s there was a public outcry and changes were supposed to be made to new studies. More recent studies showed that this did not happen as much as is needed. A 2007 study in the Journal of Women's Health found that just 24 percent of participants in 46 drug trials from 2004 were women (Geller et al. 1127).  Another study that was completed in 2011 found that the “median enrollment of women in federally funded 2009 clinical trials in nine medical journals was 37 percent—the same as it had been five years prior (Geller, Koch, et al. 317).”  To help give perspective on how studies are skewed take a look at PMS symptoms.  While 90 percent of women report experiencing at least one PMS symptom, “five times as many studies have been dedicated to erectile dysfunction, a problem experienced by 19 percent of men (Weiss).”

     A second contributing factor to medical gaslighting is that doctors are afraid.  Being responsible for the lives of sick patients can be a scary thing.  Dr. Jones shared in an article that “our fear of failing to know everything we ‘should’ causes many of us to hide behind a veil of toughness. Arrogance is often just a cover for vulnerability, and with so much information that we’re expected to digest, we are at risk for making a bad decision if we aren’t up to date (“Condescending Doctors and How to Deal With Them”).”  Dr. Jones goes on to talk about how the competitiveness of getting into medical school contributes.  Most successful pre-med students are “generally type A personalities with a fierce competitive nature (“Condescending Doctors and How to Deal With Them”).”  Another problem he mentions is physician fatigue.  He goes on to say, “one study even found that nearly 1 in 2 physicians in the US report at least 1 symptom of job burnout. Of course, sleep-deprived people are more likely to be irritable, short-tempered, impulsive, grandiose, and hostile—a.k.a. Jerks (Sifferlin).”  

     One way to help overcome medical gaslighting is making doctors more aware of when it occurs.  Doctors may give an inaccurate diagnosis but rarely find out about it. The patient leaves their office and decides to not go back.  They end up finding a different doctor who gives an accurate diagnosis and treatment. The earlier doctor never finds out his diagnosis was wrong.  Finding ways to give doctors accurate and better feedback would go a long way to eliminating this pervasive problem.  Helping doctors to become aware of their diagnostic mistakes, gives them the feedback to make better judgments in the future.  Post clinical care surveys that allow this type of feedback are critical for beginning to help improve things.  It’s important to fill out the surveys sent to you.  When appropriate, send emails letting the doctors know of the mistakes or leaving reviews of bad doctor behaviors.  Many doctors at clinics and hospitals have managers over them.  Reaching out to those managers can help to work to solve this issue.  

     The persistence of medical gaslighting in patient care and research is detrimental to patients receiving adequate care. We need to demand better research that includes more representative samples. We need educational institutions to look at how their pre-med education programs are structured and what these students are being taught so that they can become better doctors. As patients, we need to be willing to be open about this problem.  If we do not it will be difficult to make changes. Patients need to share their concerns.  All large hospitals have patient advocates that you can bring your concerns. Their job is to help you resolve these problems. I had to reach out to one to get the neurologists to return the calls that I mentioned earlier. We also need to become advocates for ourselves when it comes to health care.  When the mother shared her story about her son, she was extremely embarrassed, blaming herself for being such a terrible parent and messing up her son. She did not cause this medical disaster.  Thankfully she was persistent and willing to let others know what was happening. This opened the door to finally getting the answers they needed and her son being on the road to recovery.