medical-wandering-:-long-years-to-make-a-diagnosis

Medical wandering: many years to make a diagnosis

February 22, 2025

By Editor THE Reading 7 min. Subscribers

Being sick, but not knowing what... Medicine sometimes takes a long time to put a name to a rare pathology or chronic pain. An exhausting "wandering" that a quality dialogue between patient and doctor can shorten.

Consultation

During a consultation, If the clinical examination reveals nothing abnormal, the patient's words can be valuable.

PATRICK ALLARD/REA

This article is from the magazine Les Dossiers de Sciences et Avenir n°220 dated January/March 2025.

Alone, and prey to doubts in front of doctors who do not understand the cause of Margot's symptoms. It is with these words that Laurence evokes the diagnostic wandering experienced with her daughter in her provincial town. “Not knowing was the worst thing. I faced periods of discouragement.”, she says on the website of the Imagine Institute at the Necker-Enfants Malades hospital.

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