According to a new study, nearly a third of Canadians diagnosed with asthma may not actually have it. The CBC reports:
In Monday’s online issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Dr. Shawn Aaron of the Ottawa Health Research Institute and his colleagues looked at 496 adults from eight Canadian cities — Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec and Halifax — who received a diagnosis of asthma from a physician.
When participants were retested using clinical guidelines, 30 per cent had no evidence of the chronic disease, the researchers found.
[…] Overdiagnosis of asthma could also mask a more serious condition such as pulmonary hypertension, or bronchitis, Aaron said, blaming the overdiagnosis on the hassle factor of the clinical tests.
“Physicians are under a lot of pressure to manage a lot of patients quickly,” Aaron said. “For a patient who comes in complaining of shortness of breath and wheeze, it’s much more easy and it takes much less time to say, ‘I think you have asthma, take this puffer.’”
I wonder how many people have altered their lifestyles, torn up their carpets, bought expensive air purifiers and given away their pets because they were misdiagnosed?
And even worse — I wonder what they really have?
Image via iHaveAsthma.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Rawda // Nov 19, 2008 at 10:09 am
Altering your lifestyle for a reason that doesn’t really exist sucks, but it most likely won’t cause uncommon psychiatric side-effects (including cases of agitation and hallucination in children) according to Health Canada.
Hey, you may get a chronic disease because of the improper use of an inhaler, but you’ll still be functional hopefully!
Maybe I’m too crazy about this topic because learning disabilities and issues with students is my thing, but it scares me that 70% of the students in my school are on Ritalin!
I stumbled upon the following stats, that were published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal as a result of a survey conducted in Atlantic Canada on 13,549 students in grades seven to twelve:
1- 8.5 % of students reported taking Ritalin and similar prescription drugs for recreational reasons, compared to 5.3 % who took the drugs for treatment of ADHD.
2- 20 % of teenagers who are prescribed methylphenidate (Ritalin) and dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine) are passing the medications on to others.
3- 14.7 % of them are sharing the pills with classmates, including a significant number who are being bullied out of their drugs or having them stolen
4- 7.3 % are trafficking the drugs to their schoolmates.
According to the study, students who sell their medications are four times more likely to use marijuana and six times more likely to use other recreational drugs than other students. (alcohol, cigarettes, and other drugs).
Drugs should be used as a last resort, and unfortunately we are infamiliar with this concept in North America. Furthermore, the disproportionate ratio of doctors to patients leads to huge pressure on doctors to spend less time with every patient, guess what ails them, and prescribe medications, vite, vite vite!
2 renee // Nov 23, 2008 at 5:23 pm
hi !!
as usual, absorbing posts , Mark !
akshully, it likely doesn’t do too much bad if people clean up their acts and are inspired to reduce pollution in their microspheres lol..
but the pet thing could be a heartbreaker for the kids.
the good thing about this is that the kids will seemingly outgrow the asthma…..
loveya ! renee
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