*How COVID-19 Brought Medical Gaslighting to the Forefront and Made Invisible Illness Visible… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.107936*

to my COVID-19 infection I was a healthy person, and that my elevated glucose levels were not because of poor diet or lack of exercise, but that this doctor was attempting to make me doubt my own experience, which is a common characteristic of gaslighting [21]. Gaslighting is not just a medical phenomenon, it can occur anywhere and between anyone. Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse that involves a power component, with people who use these tactics typically being in a position of power as compared to their victim [22]. The psychological impact left on the person who has experienced gaslighting can be profound [22]. Patients who experience medical gaslighting might start to question their own reality, especially if the person doing the gaslighting is a medical doctor [23]. Anxiety, hypertension and depression can develop in a person experiencing medical gaslighting, resulting in loss of patient-doctor trust, and in extreme cases, some patients might withdraw from social life [24, 25].

Medical gaslighting does not happen to everyone equally. It occurs most often to women and people of color. For illnesses where there is no clear test to ascertain if a person has the illness, medical gaslighting is a common occurrence. For example, a study found that women who present with symptoms of abdominal pain are not believed by doctors in the same way men are believed who report with the same type of pain [26]. Medical gaslighting is particularly a problem when there are no objective tests to diagnosis the health complaint. Patients in this "difficult to diagnose" category are often blamed and are not believed by doctors [25]. Doctors might dismiss difficult to diagnose patients with having a mental health issue, rather than having a physiological problem, which leads to devaluing of the patient [27, 28]. Disparity in treatment by doctors because of a patient's gender, race, sexuality, age or disability status has been a problem for people with chronic illnesses long before the COVID-19 pandemic [29–32]. Given that research has thoroughly documented bias in healthcare for decades, and little has been done to resolve this issue, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that it is time for medical school curriculum to systematically address biases that doctors and other medical staff bring to the treatment room.
