The line between medical disorder and normal bodily or mental function has become increasingly blurred. This is particularly apparent when it comes to mental illness disorders, the boundaries of which are expanding all the time. Diagnoses of conditions like autism, ADHD, depression, and anxiety have risen enormously in a short period of time, partly driven by social mimesis, including via the internet.
But it's not only mental health diagnoses which have become more common. Genetic tests can now detect pathologies decades before people experience symptoms, and sometimes before they're even born. And increased health screening draws more and more people into believing they are unwell.
My guest today argues that we are seeing a process of 'diagnosis creep', the result of both increasingly sensitive modern testing, and also a social push towards seeking out diagnoses to explain dysfunction that would historically have gone un-labelled. Suzanne O'Sullivan is a consultant clinical neurologist working in the NHS, and in her book 'The Age of Diagnosis' she suggests that this overdiagnosis can sometimes cause serious harm.
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