Lupus & antiphospholipid syndrome
Diagnostic overshadowing in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): A qualitative study
Authors' conclusion
Our data suggests that DOS may be an important factor in diagnostic delay in patients with SLE.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with SLE from the 2018–2021 Cambridge University Systemic Autoimmune Rheumatic Disease (SARD) studies268 surveys
- Outcome
- Role of diagnostic overshadowing (DOS) in delaying SLE diagnoses
Methodological detailspatient surveys and in-depth interviews, purposive selection
- Patient surveys and in-depth interviews
- Purposive selection
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Diagnostic overshadowing (DOS)
- The majority of participants appear to have experienced diagnostic overshadowing (DOS)
- Sustained DOS (S-DOS) may add years to some SLE diagnostic journeys
- Misattributions contributing to S-DOS: "Medical mystery", esp. when clinician indicated too expensive to keep investigating
- Misattributions contributing to S-DOS: negative misattributions (e.g. "nothing seriously wrong"), often from failure to connect multiple symptoms
- Misattributions contributing to S-DOS: diagnostic roadblocks, incl. mental health, psychosomatic, ME/CFS or FM (mis)diagnosis
- Misattributions contributing to S-DOS: moral misattributions (e.g. "malingering"), could undermine patient help-seeking and/or clinician help-giving
Original publication
Diagnostic overshadowing in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): A qualitative study. Lupus. Published 9 June 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →