title: Psychosocial consequences and severity of disclosed incidental findings from whole-body MRI in a general population study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Little is known about the psychosocial impact and subjective interpretation of communicated incide ntal findings from whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (wb-MRI). This was addressed with this general population study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data was based on the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP), Germany. SHIP comprised a 1.5-T wb-MRI examination. A postal survey was conducted among the first 471 participants, aged 23-84 years, who received a notification about incidental findings (response 86.0 %, n = 405). The severity of incidental findings was assessed from the participants' and radiologists' perspective.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 394 participants (97.3 %) wanted to learn about their health by undergoing wb-MRI. Strong distress while waiting for a potential notification of an incidental finding was reported by 40 participants (9.9 %), whereas 116 (28.6 %) reported moderate to severe psychological distress thereafter. Strong disagreement was noted between the subjective and radiological evaluation of the findings' severity (kappa = 0.02). Almost all participants (n = 389, 96.0 %) were very satisfied with their examination.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite the high satisfaction of most participants, there were numerous adverse consequences concerning the communication of incidental findings and false expectations about the likely potential benefits of whole-body-MRI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  • Disclosed incidental findings from MRI may lead to substantial psychosocial distress. • Subjective and radiological evaluations of incidental findings' severity differ strongly. • Disclosing incidental findings is strongly endorsed by study volunteers. • Study volunteers tend to have false expectations about potential benefits from MRI. • Minimizing stress in study volunteers should be a key aim in MRI research.
authors.affiliation: Study of Health in Pomerania /KEF, University Medicine of Greifswald, Institute for Community Medicine, Walther Rathenau Str. 48, 17475 Greifswald, Germany. carsten.schmidt@uni-greifswald.de
authors.forename: Carsten Oliver
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hegenscheid
authors.forename: Pia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Erdmann
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kohlmann
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Langanke
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Völzke
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Puls
authors.forename: Heinrich
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Assel
authors.forename: Reiner
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Biffar
authors.forename: Hans Jörgen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Grabe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D033162:Incidental Findings; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015995:Prevalence; D011584:Psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D051598:Whole Body Imaging / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult