BMJ 1996;312:1227 (11 May)

Letters

False positive findings of mammography will have psychological consequences

EDITOR,--We applaud E Lidbrink and colleagues' attempts to quantify the substantial disadvantages of false positive findings in patients invited to attend for breast screening.1 Clearly, a financial cost of over £250000 from a single round of screening at a well organised centre in Stockholm represents a huge sum that could have been better spent, though to us the more important feature of the report relates to the adverse psychological events. The authors state that they did not study the "possible adverse psychological consequences of the false positive mammograms in these women," but experience from daily life teaches us that nothing is so corrosive and enervating as a persisting uncertainty about the possibility of serious illness or upset. After six months only two thirds of the women (219/342) had been declared free of cancer, so one third must have spent even longer under the sword of Damocles.

Many of the malignant . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Assessment of obesity and its clinical implications
Thang S Han, Naveed Sattar, and Mike Lean
BMJ 2006 333: 695-698. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Neglected aspects of false positive findings of mammography in breast cancer screening: analysis of false positive cases from the Stockholm trial
E Lidbrink, J Elfving, J Frisell, and E Jonsson
BMJ 1996 312: 273-276. [Abstract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Narang, S., Banerjee, A., Satsangi, D. K, Geelani, M. A (2009). Seasonal Variation in Thrombogenicity of Blood: a Word of Caution. Asian Cardiovasc. Thorac. Ann. 17: 25-28 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • Han, T. S, Sattar, N., Lean, M. (2006). ABC of obesity. Assessment of obesity and its clinical implications.. BMJ 333: 695-698 [Full text]  
  • Manfredini, R., Gallerani, M., Boari, B., Salmi, R., Mehta, R. H. (2004). Seasonal Variation in Onset of Pulmonary Embolism is Independent of Patients' Underlying Risk Comorbid Conditions. CLIN APPL THROMB HEMOST 10: 39-43 [Abstract]  
  • Boulay, F., Berthier, F., Schoukroun, G., Raybaut, C., Gendreike, Y., Blaive, B. (2001). Seasonal variations in hospital admission for deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism: analysis of discharge data. BMJ 323: 601-602 [Full text]  
  • Weil, J G, Hawker, J I (1997). Positive findings of mammography may lead to suicide. BMJ 314: 754-754 [Full text]  
  • Cox, B. D, Whichelow, M. J (1996). Ratio of waist circumference to height is better predictor of death than body mass index. BMJ 313: 1487-1487 [Full text]  
  • Ashwell, M., Cole, T. J, Dixon, A. K (1996). Ratio of waist circumference to height is strong predictor of intra-abdominal fat. BMJ 313: 559d-560 [Full text]  
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ