The Martha Mitchell Effect
Martha Mitchell was married to the attorney general in the Nixon administration, John Mitchell. She spoke up about the illegal activities that she was witnessing, but her claims were written off as delusional until the actual events of the Watergate scandal became public, when she was vindicated. Sometimes a patient reports events to a doctor or other health care provider that the provider finds difficult to believe and considers to be delusions even when what the patient is reporting is actually true. This is called the "Martha Mitchell effect" in reference to her experience of being wrongfully considered delusional. This is particularly likely to happen when a patient's symptoms are the result of the malicious actions of another person, such as harm resulting from harassment or abuse. This might include poisoning, stalking, gangstalking (group harassment), or gaslighting. Abusers sometimes deliberately do things to their victims that make the victim sound crazy if they report it. This is also more likely to occur if the patient reports harm from a medical procedure, treatment, or another medical provider, or from someone who is powerful or well known.
This effect was seen recently when some people presented to the hospital during the COVID 19 pandemic suffering adverse events from the COVID vaccines and were diagnosed as delusional when they were suffering actual side effects that were later acknowledged by the medical establishment and public health authorities.
