Dismissal of patient, family, and caregiver concerns constitutes a leading threat to patient safety and care. Surveys show over 94% of respondents felt doctors ignored or dismissed symptoms, and over 61% reported being blamed or made to feel crazy. Such dismissal meets the APA definition of gaslighting—manipulation that causes patients to doubt their perceptions and can have severe consequences. Reported misdiagnoses include serious conditions labeled as psychological or drug-seeking, leading to missed treatments and eroded self-trust. The resulting toxic power dynamic increases dependence on clinicians and exposes patients to health risks from delayed or incorrect care.
In 2025, the Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI) produced a ranked list of 10 threats to patient care. At the top of the list was "Dismissing patient, family, and caregiver concerns." In a survey done by HealthCentral, they found that over 94 percent of their survey-takers felt that "their doctors have ignored or dismissed their symptoms." More than 61 percent of respondents reported that their doctors "blamed them for their symptoms or made them feel like they were crazy."
This kind of faulty treatment aligns with the American Psychological Association's definition of gaslighting as "to manipulate another person into doubting their perceptions, experiences, or understanding of events." The APA notes that in its original sense, the term gaslighting conveyed such serious manipulation that it could lead to the gaslit person being committed "to a psychiatric institution." In the HealthCentral survey, patients shared stories of serious misdiagnosis:
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