Overdiagnosis

Russian neurologists pointed to such a problem as the existing overdiagnosis of hypertension syndrome in children (for example, unnecessarily frequent diagnosis by neuropathologists of district clinics, neurological hospitals in Moscow ) ^[2] .

The overdiagnosis of osteochondrosis in adults is also a frequent problem: in fact, the causes of back pain are extremely numerous - they can be divided into viscogenous, vascular, psychogenic, neurogenic and spondylogenic. The hyperdiagnosis of osteochondrosis of the spine is accompanied by the neglect of functional disorders of the musculoskeletal system (the formation of blocks in small and large joints , the appearance of various reflex pain musculoskeletal syndromes). In addition, the possibility of diseases of the organs of the chest, abdominal cavity, or pelvic organs is not sufficiently taken into account - such diseases can also cause acute or chronic back pain ^[3] .

The obstetrician - gynecologist S. N. Baksheev indicates that there is a group of pseudodiagnoses readily put down by many doctors - as a result, patients often take medications in the absence of serious pathology. These pseudodiagnoses include:

• Dysbacteriosis
• "Slagging . "
• Ureaplasmosis and mycoplasmosis . Neither ureaplasma nor mycoplasma are pathogenic microflora , they can remain in the body for years without causing health complications. At the same time, excessive "treatment" of these "infections" with antibiotics can lead to serious complications of antibiotic therapy and not give visible results with a new analysis. Neither mycoplasma nor ureaplasma infection are included in the standard of examination and treatment in some European countries and are considered a “commercial treatment infection” in post-Soviet countries.
• Gardnerellosis . In fact, this condition also does not lead to serious negative consequences for health, it is on the verge between pathology and the norm. He is also sometimes offered to be treated with antibiotics, which only exacerbate the situation, but this kind of "treatment" may be beneficial for the doctor ^[4] .

It is universally recognized that in the 60s and 80s of the 20th century, the overdiagnosis of schizophrenia became widespread in the Moscow school of Soviet psychiatry ^[5] . The diagnostic criteria for sluggish schizophrenia adopted by A. V. Snezhnevsky and his followers were significantly expanded in comparison with the criteria for schizophrenia adopted in the West ^{[6] [7]} . The hyperdiagnosis of schizophrenia is also common in the post-Soviet era ^{[8] [9]} . So, systematic studies show that the diagnosis of the whole group of affective pathology in modern Russian psychiatry is negligible and refers to schizophrenia in a ratio of 1: 100. This completely contradicts the data of foreign genetic - epidemiological studies, according to which the ratio of these diseases is 2: 1. This situation is explained, in particular, by the fact that, despite the official introduction of ICD-10 in 1999 , Russian doctors continue to use an adapted version of this manual for Russia, similar to the adapted version of the ICD-9 for the USSR ^[9] .

In Soviet times, the excessively frequent diagnosis of mental disorders in children, due to the existence of a norm of workload at the doctor, was spread: there was an unreasonable psychiatric medical examination of mentally healthy children who were lagging behind in school ^[10] . In post-Soviet times, criticism is, in particular, excessive diagnosis of mental retardation in children, which, as a result of this diagnosis, are unreasonably recognized as untrained and placed in psychoneurological boarding schools for life ^{[11] [12]} .

In the USA, a particularly alarming factor is the increase in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders in children ^[13] . As noted in 2011, the famous American doctor M. Angell , ten percent of preteen boys in the US take stimulants for ADHD every day, and 500,000 children take antipsychotics ^[13] . Overdiagnosis in Western countries of clinical depression is also a problem ^{[14] [15]} . According to the British public organization Mind dealing with mental health problems, the number of prescriptions for antidepressants prescribed in the UK in 2006 reached 31 million ^[14] . The book The Loss of Sadness by American sociology professor A. Horwitz and psychiatry professor J. Wakefield speaks of an unjustifiably broad diagnosis of depression and the medicalization of simple human feelings: excitement, sadness, sorrow, shyness ^[15] .

According to the scientific editor of ABC magazine, therapist of the highest category A. Vodovozova, overdiagnosis is more typical for countries with a developed system of voluntary medical insurance , in Russia, in his opinion, hyper-treatment in the form of polypharmacy (simultaneous administration of a large number of drugs drugs, often without regard to their compatibility) ^[16] .

• Ionycheva N. What mistakes do doctors make when making diagnoses // News, January 28, 2015.