Table.
“If you had leg weakness, your tests were normal, and a doctor said you had ‘X’ would he be suggesting that you were Y (or had Y).” Percentage responses among 86 new neurology outpatients, offence score, and “number needed to offend”—that is, number of patients who would have to be given this diagnostic label before one patient is “offended”
| Diagnoses (X)
|
Connotations (Y) (No (%) of patients)
|
Offence score (%)*
|
Number needed to offend (95% CI)†
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Putting it on (yes)
|
Mad (yes)
|
Imagining symptoms (yes)
|
Medical condition (no)
|
Good reason to be off sick from work (no)
|
|||
| Symptoms all in the mind | 71 (83) | 27 (31) | 75 (87) | 57 (66) | 60 (70) | 93 | 2 (2 to 2) |
| Hysterical weakness | 39 (45) | 21 (24) | 39 (45) | 28 (33) | 36 (42) | 52 | 2 (2 to 3) |
| Psychosomatic weakness | 21 (24) | 10 (12) | 34 (40) | 18 (21) | 24 (28) | 42 | 3 (2 to 4) |
| Medically unexplained weakness | 21 (24) | 10 (12) | 27 (31) | 32 (37) | 35 (41) | 35 | 3 (3 to 5) |
| Depression associated weakness | 18 (21) | 6 (7) | 17 (20) | 13 (15) | 24 (28) | 33 | 4 (3 to 5) |
| Stress related weakness | 8 (9) | 3 (6) | 12 (14) | 14 (16) | 20 (23) | 20 | 6 (4 to 9) |
| Chronic fatigue | 8 (9) | 1 (2) | 9 (10) | 16 (19) | 12 (14) | 15 | 7 (5 to 13) |
| Functional weakness | 6 (7) | 2 (2) | 7 (8) | 7 (8) | 17 (20) | 12 | 9 (5 to 21) |
| Stroke | 2 (2) | 4 (5) | 4 (5) | 5 (6) | 10 (12) | 12 | 9 (5 to 21) |
| Multiple sclerosis | 0 (0) | 1 (1) | 3 (3) | 3 (3) | 7 (8) | 5 | 22 (9 to ∞) |
*
Proportion of patients who responded “yes” to one or more of “putting it on,” “mad,” or “imagining symptoms.”
†
Calculated according to the offence score.