What Do I Do When Specialists Disagree?

When specialists disagree about Lyme disease, patients ask me this question every week. It often arises at a moment when confidence in medicine begins to fracture—not because patients doubt science, but because no one is stepping back to connect the full clinical picture.

Disagreement among specialists does not mean your symptoms are unclear—it often means they have not yet been fully integrated.

This situation is especially common in patients with complex, multisystem illnesses.

They have followed instructions, attended appointments, and completed testing. Yet one physician says the results are normal. Another says the symptoms do not fall within their specialty. A third recommends a treatment plan that contradicts the others.

When doctors disagree, patients are not simply confused—they are left without a clear path forward. For people living with Lyme disease and other complex, multisystem illnesses, this moment too often marks a transition from coordinated care to quiet medical abandonment.

Featured Answer: What to Do When Specialists Disagree About Lyme Disease

When specialists disagree about Lyme disease, the most important step is finding a clinician who can integrate opinions across systems and remain accountable for the overall plan. Rather than choosing sides, patients benefit most from coordinated care that explains the full symptom pattern, monitors response over time, and reassesses the plan when progress stalls.

Why Specialists Disagree About Lyme Disease

Disagreement among specialists is rarely due to carelessness or lack of knowledge. More often, it reflects how modern medicine is organized. Most specialists are trained to focus narrowly on a single organ system and to apply guidelines designed for isolated disease states rather than complex, evolving illness.

Lyme disease and related conditions do not respect these boundaries. Symptoms may fluctuate, migrate, or overlap across neurologic, rheumatologic, cardiac, and autonomic domains. As a result, each clinician may be correct within their own scope—yet the patient remains without an explanation that accounts for the whole experience.

This is a common consequence of fragmented, specialty-driven care rather than a failure of individual clinicians.
No single specialty is designed to manage evolving illness that crosses systems without coordination.

What to Do When Specialists Disagree About Lyme Disease Care

When you are caught between specialists with differing views, the goal is not to determine who is right, but to ensure that care remains coordinated and responsive.

A clinician who integrates information across disciplines, tracks symptom patterns over time, and remains willing to reassess the plan when progress stalls can make a critical difference.

Rather than asking which opinion to trust, it is often more helpful to ask whether the current approach explains all symptoms, whether the risks of inaction have been considered, and what will change if the plan does not lead to improvement.

Patients should not be expected to coordinate care on their own—but their observations often provide essential continuity.

Dismissal should never be mistaken for resolution. Being told that nothing more can be done does not mean nothing more should be evaluated.

Resources

1. Institute of Medicine (National Academies) Primary Care and the Fragmentation of Health Care
2. New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Groopman J. How Doctors Think.
3. BMJ Kostopoulou O et al. Diagnostic difficulty and uncertainty in primary care

4. CDC. Signs and Symptoms of Untreated Lyme Disease

5. Dr. Daniel Cameron: Lyme Science Blog. Chronic Lyme disease controversy
6. Dr. Daniel Cameron: Lyme Science Blog. Aug 19 Why Doctors Disagree on Antibiotics After a Tick Bite
7. Dr. Daniel Cameron: Lyme Science Blog. Doctors favor personalized care over IDSA guidelines