Diagnosis Uncertainty Increases Anxiety in Patients

CHICAGO—Have you ever felt uneasy sitting in a doctor's waiting room or climbed the walls waiting for your test results? That feeling of anxious uncertainty can be more stressful than knowing you have a serious illness, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
"Not knowing your diagnosis is a very serious stressor," said the study's lead author, Elvira V. Lang, M.D., associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "It can be as serious as knowing that you have malignant disease or need to undergo a possibly risky treatment."
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