The doctor warned about the risks of treatment based on the recommendations of friends

The recommendations of friends when choosing a doctor help to reduce the patient's anxiety, but they do not guarantee proper treatment and require additional verification. On April 18, Candidate of Medical Sciences, coloproctologist surgeon, founder of the multidisciplinary medical center KDS Clinic Samvel Baghdasaryan told Izvestia about this.

"A friend's recommendation, for all its emotional and social significance, is only a starting point, a vector of movement, but in no way a guarantee of a high-quality result. It cannot replace a full—fledged diagnosis and an individual treatment plan," he said.

According to the specialist, patients often transfer trust in their loved ones to the doctor they were referred to. This creates a positive attitude, but at the same time reduces the criticality of perception and can lead to underestimation of the features of one's own condition.

The expert stressed that clinical cases are always individual, and the "helped another — will help me" approach does not comply with the principles of evidence-based medicine. He added that obtaining a second opinion is an important tool to clarify the diagnosis and choose the optimal treatment strategy.

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"When a patient insists on a certain treatment method because he helped someone else, there is a conflict between the layman's experience and clinical protocols. A doctor who values his reputation and the health of a patient is obliged to rely not on success stories told in the queue, but on examination data, laboratory and instrumental studies," said Baghdasaryan.

In addition, the recommendations of friends rarely take into account the narrow specialization of the doctor, which can lead to contacting the wrong specialist. Baghdasaryan concluded that when choosing a doctor, it is necessary to study his profile, experience and professional competencies, and use recommendations only as a guideline, and not as the only criterion for decision-making.

On April 14, Fuad Seifullayev, a surgeon and lecturer at the Department of Surgical Diseases at the Medical Faculty of the Synergy University, pointed out the risks of refusing sick leave. He noted that he often comes across patients who postpone treatment due to work and are already in a neglected state. According to him, people often explain this by the inability to take time off due to deadlines, hoping that everything will go away by itself, but in the end the disease only worsens.

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