Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi

New Delhi, Oct 14: Women with autoimmune diseases are significantly more likely than men to have their symptoms misdiagnosed as psychiatric or psychosomatic conditions, according to an international study involving 6,600 patients.

The study, published on October 12 in The Lancet's eClinicalMedicine, was led by researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of East Anglia. It also found that women were more likely to experience delays in receiving the correct diagnosis and appropriate treatment.

According to the findings, 43 per cent of women reported that their autoimmune symptoms had been attributed to psychiatric causes. Some were also told that psychological factors were worsening their physical symptoms.

Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's own tissues. Conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and multiple sclerosis fall into this category. Diagnosing these illnesses can be challenging because symptoms often include fatigue, pain, sleep disturbances and low mood.

Co-author Shaista Tayabali said the differences in misdiagnosis between men and women were significant. She noted that women reported higher rates of psychiatric and psychosomatic misdiagnoses but lower rates of misdiagnoses involving other physical illnesses, suggesting that gender bias continues to affect the diagnostic process.

Melanie Sloan of the University of Cambridge's Department of Public Health and Primary Care said psychological explanations could sometimes be offered too early. While this could happen to patients of either sex, the findings suggested women were particularly vulnerable to such misdiagnoses.

To understand what might be overlooked during diagnosis, researchers designed the study in collaboration with patients, charities and clinicians. Participants provided information about their symptoms, diagnoses, medical consultations and the different conditions they had been diagnosed with before their autoimmune disease was identified.

Professor David D'Cruz, a consultant rheumatologist at Guy's Hospital, said the findings did not mean that psychiatric diagnoses were always incorrect. Patients can have both autoimmune and psychiatric conditions, and some autoimmune diseases, including lupus, can directly affect the brain and cause psychiatric symptoms.

He stressed that when symptoms persist, change over time or affect multiple body systems, clinicians should consider the possibility of an underlying autoimmune disease that has not yet been recognised and listen carefully to patients.