Your tips to get through an MRI

LAST week I answered a reader’s question about how to face up to an MRI scan when suffering with claustrophobia and a fear of loud noises.

Many of you who have similar anxieties wrote in to share your tips for coping. Staff in MRI units often offer headphones so patients can listen to music, but readers recommended also wearing an eye mask as this helped to block out what was going on even further.

There are also upright MRI machines, which are less enclosed. The patient walks in and stands still while being scanned. I’d always thought this was a private-only service, but a number of readers said they’d had success in getting an NHS referral for one.

So if you really do need a scan, and genuinely can’t cope with a traditional MRI, speak to your GP or specialist about whether you might be able to apply to be analysed by one of these machines instead.