Quantifying the psychological and behavioural consequences of a diagnostic label for non-cancer conditions: systematic review
Sims, Rebecca, Michaleff, Zoe A., Glasziou, Paul, Jones, Mark, and Thomas, Rae (2023) Quantifying the psychological and behavioural consequences of a diagnostic label for non-cancer conditions: systematic review. BJPsych Open, 9 (3). e73.
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Abstract
Background Screening for asymptomatic health conditions is perceived as mostly beneficial, with possible harms receiving little attention.
Aims To quantify proximal and longer-term consequences for individuals receiving a diagnostic label following screening for an asymptomatic, non-cancer health condition.
Method Five electronic databases were searched (inception to November 2022) for studies that recruited asymptomatic screened individuals who received or did not receive a diagnostic label. Eligible studies reported psychological, psychosocial and/or behavioural outcomes before and after screening results. Independent reviewers screened titles and abstracts, extracted data from included studies, and assessed risk of bias (Risk of Bias in Non-Randomised Studies of Interventions). Results were meta-analysed or descriptively reported.
Results Sixteen studies were included. Twelve studies addressed psychological outcomes, four studies examined behavioural outcomes and none reported psychosocial outcomes. Risk of bias was judged as low (n = 8), moderate (n = 5) or serious (n = 3). Immediately after receiving results, anxiety was significantly higher for individuals receiving versus not receiving a diagnostic label (mean difference -7.28, 95% CI -12.85 to -1.71). On average, anxiety increased from the non-clinical to clinical range, but returned to the non-clinical range in the longer term. No significant immediate or longer-term differences were found for depression or general mental health. Absenteeism did not significantly differ from the year before to the year after screening.
Conclusions The impacts of screening asymptomatic, non-cancer health conditions are not universally positive. Limited research exists regarding longer-term impacts. Well-designed, high-quality studies further investigating these impacts are required to assist development of protocols that minimise psychological distress following diagnosis.
Item ID: | 82192 |
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Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
ISSN: | 2056-4724 |
Keywords: | consequences, diagnosis, Labelling, screening, systematic review |
Copyright Information: | © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. |
Date Deposited: | 13 Mar 2024 00:08 |
FoR Codes: | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5203 Clinical and health psychology > 520304 Health psychology @ 100% |
SEO Codes: | 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280121 Expanding knowledge in psychology @ 100% |
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