Forget white coats. What about red-face syndrome?
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, or Nice, says millions of people may have been wrongly diagnosed with high blood pressure because of "white-coat syndrome", writes Peter Rhodes.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, or Nice, says millions of people may have been wrongly diagnosed with high blood pressure because of "white-coat syndrome", writes Peter Rhodes.
This is the natural anxiety that comes of meeting a doctor (although, given that nurses have cornered this area of the NHS, it ought to be called lumpy blue-dress syndrome).
Nice suggests patients should instead be fitted with a 24-hour blood-pressure monitor.
Let me tell you this. I have been BP-tested by doctors, nurses and by the 24-hour monitor, worn on the arm.
By far the most stressful was the monitor which goes off every hour, on the hour, with an electric pump that sounds like a loud burst of flatulence - usually in the pub, supermarket or other public place.
Unsurprisingly, the readings were high. Red-face syndrome.
