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The Article in Brief
Diagnostic Invasiveness and Psychosocial Consequences of False-Positive Mammography
Bruno Heleno , and colleagues
Background The psychological consequences of a false-positive mammogram are among the important harms of mammography screening. This study examines whether women with false-positive mammograms whose follow-up involved a biopsy had worse psychosocial consequences than women managed only with additional imaging.
What This Study Found Regardless of the nature of follow-up diagnostic tests, women with false-positive mammograms have worse psychosocial consequences than those of women with normal results and better than those of women with breast cancer. This is in contrast to previous research suggesting that more invasive diagnostic procedures after false-positive mammograms are associated with worse negative psychosocial outcomes. Researchers analyzed data on 454 women with abnormal screening mammography and 908 matched control women with normal results. Among the 252 women in the group with false-positive mammography, psychosocial outcomes were similar for those managed invasively (with a biopsy) and those managed noninvasively (with only additional imaging) during 36 months follow-up. In fact, the best estimate for the difference in psychosocial consequences between women managed invasively and noninvasively was close to zero.
Implications
- These findings suggest that women who require only clinical examination and additional imaging experience the same degree of distress as women who undergo invasive procedures. As a result, the authors conclude that interventions to limit the psychosocial harm of mammography screening should focus on reducing the total number of false-positive tests.