False-Positive Mammograms Take a Toll (Los Angeles Times)

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H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, says a new study of women who had false-positive results from mammograms is one of the first to track the effects of receiving such news, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The study found that after receiving a false report of breast abnormalities, and then getting the corrected results, many women experienced ongoing anxiety, according to the newspaper.

“This isn’t a short-term anxiety hit,” Welch tells the newspaper. “Their state of mind is somewhere in between a patient with breast cancer and a normal one.”

Read the full story, published 3/19/13 by the Los Angeles Times.

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