Mental health not to be a meaningless label

Research from Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and University of East Anglia has revealed that the majority of patients need a mental health diagnosis to be useful and would prefer to be told their diagnosis face-to-face.

Published in The Lancet Psychiatry, the study questioned participants from 12 countries, with approximately 2,220 people involved from the UK. The findings point towards doctors making assumptions about what they believe to be in patients' best interests, often ‘delaying or withholding diagnosis’. This is sometimes because they are unsure about the impact it might have on the patient.

While a diagnosis can be problematic of devastating for a patient, the research found evidence of feelings of isolation, confusion, insignificance or distress when a diagnosis was not discussed. If not discussed face-to-face, the diagnosis was usually shared via health records, in a letter or ‘mentioned accidentally in a care meeting’.

Dr Corinna Hackmann, one of the report's authors, told the BBC that patients ‘would prefer to be involved and informed in the whole process’ of a mental health diagnosis, claiming that the diagnostic process would ideally become ‘collaborative’ and that will ‘respond to individual need in a way that explains difficulties, gives hope and guides recovery’.

Dr Caitlin Notley, of the University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School, said: "This research supports a sensitive, individualised, collaborative, and holistic approach to mental health diagnosis, which is informative, can empower service users, provide hope and guide treatment."