Hospital Procedures

Claustrophobia and MRI scans

GPs will not issue prescriptions for sedating medications (such as diazepam) prior to MRI scans.
It’s estimated that every year, approximately two million MRI scans worldwide are not performed because of patients refusing to be scanned or terminating the scan early due to claustrophobia.

There are many resources online that can help prepare patients on what to expect during a scan including step by step explanations and videos of MRIs being performed.  In more severe cases, the NHS website suggests that mild sedatives are an option for people with severe MRI anxiety.

However, guidance from The Royal College of Radiologists states that a ‘trained and credentialed team should administer sedation and analgesia’, that ‘patients requiring sedation should undergo pre-procedure assessment and have a sedation plan’ and that ‘sedated patients should be appropriately monitored’.
This means that GPs are not in a position to prescribe these medications for MRI scans.
If you think you need sedation for an MRI scan, this needs to be discussed with the radiology team.