A new study has reported that Fibromyalgia Syndrome (Fibro) patients may not seek help to manage their symptoms because the symptoms seem normal to them.
Fibro often takes a long time to diagnose, with some patients even reporting that they had symptoms for decades before diagnosis. The attitudes and actions of the healthcare professionals seen by the patient are obviously involved in this delay, but so too can be patient attitudes and actions. A problem with invisible illnesses, such as Fibro, which have no outward sign of illness, is that even the patient can doubt whether the symptoms are really there. The symptoms of Fibro have been shown in research to have a number of physiological causes, but with nothing visible, some patients end up wondering if everyone feels the same as them. Many patients try to lead a normal life for some time after the onset of Fibro, maintaining careers, relationships and lifestyles as far as possible for as long as they physically can, despite the immense struggle this can be. This struggle to remain “normal” can continue after diagnosis.
The study, carried out by a Turkish doctor, investigated whether Fibro sufferers who didn’t seek medical help had a different level of normalising attributes than patients who sought medical help. Thirty-seven Fibro patients who were seeing consultants about their condition were compared with 38 Fibro sufferers who weren’t seeing a doctor, as well as 34 healthy controls. They were assessed for anxiety, depression, alexithymia (a relatively new term meaning the inability to express feelings in words) and normalising attributes.
The Fibro sufferers who weren’t seeing a doctor were found to have the highest normalizing scores, with the Fibro patients who were seeing a doctor having even lower normalizing scores than the healthy controls.
The article concluded that “normalization may negatively influence help-seeking behavior and contribute to non-help-seeking behavior.”
Reference: Gulec H. Normalizing Attributions May Contribute to Non-Help-Seeking Behavior in People With Fibromyalgia Syndrome. Psychosomatics. 2008 May;49(3):212-217.
May 24, 2008 at 11:47 pm
So true… I always fail to mention a symptom unless it becomes problamatic, otherwise it seems par the course or I speculate it is a med side effect. I delayed telling my doctor about shortness of breath for about six months, and when I did I rather down played it, until it became worse after a couple bouts of bronchitis… and it turns out I have asthma.