UK Research
Lupus News
Dr Melanie Sloan from the University of Cambridge led a new study exploring impact of Systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs) on patients lives.
Systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs) can involve physical, cognitive and mental health symptoms which have widespread impacts on patients’ lives. This study aimed to explore how SARDs impact patients’ daily activities, work, relationships, wellbeing and identity.
A ‘chasm of misunderstanding and miscommunication’ is often experienced between clinicians and patients, leading to autoimmune diseases such as lupus and vasculitis being wrongly diagnosed as psychiatric or psychosomatic conditions, with a profound and lasting impact on patients, researchers have found.
A study involving over 3,000 participants – both patients and clinicians – found that these misdiagnoses (often termed “in your head” by patients) were often associated with long term impacts on patients’ physical and wellbeing and damaged trust in healthcare services.
Experts today call for more value to be given to patients’ ‘lived experiences’ as a study of over 1,000 patients and clinicians found multiple examples of patient reports being under-valued.
The research, led by a team at the University of Cambridge and Kings’ College London, found that clinicians ranked patient self-assessments as least important in diagnostic decisions, and said that patients both over- and under-played their symptoms more often than patients reported doing so.
Women who suffer the tragedy of stillbirth are four times more likely to develop Lupus in later life than those who experience an uncomplicated birth, a study has found.
Researchers from Manchester found a link between stillbirths and connective tissue disorders — with the association with Lupus being by far the strongest.
Genetic variations in the complement system — a part of the immune response — contribute to differences between men and women in their susceptibility to Sjögren’s syndrome, lupus, and schizophrenia, according to a study.
Ground-breaking research solves the 50-year-old question why some diseases exhibit a sex bias, hitting harder or eliciting different symptoms in men or women.
