The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker

An epidemic of overdiagnosis is causing patients to pathologize normal differences and overtaxing the medical system, according to this thought-provoking treatise. Neurologist O’Sullivan (The Sleeping Beauties) explains how new screening techniques and expanded disease parameters have spiked rates of such conditions as autism, Huntington’s disease, and ADHD—risking, for mild cases, needless health anxiety, an overreliance on medication, and the “nocebo effect,” where labeling the disease can actually produce symptoms. Meanwhile, time and money is wasted in treating people for cases “that would never have progressed” or “would have resolved spontaneously if left alone.” At the root of the endless search for diagnoses—and medical institutions’ willingness to provide them—O’Sullivan finds a nebulous mix of “physical suffering and personal struggles” that, given modern society’s “general lack of caring institutions,” end up driving patients to the medical system for answers. She intriguingly illustrates this phenomenon through a discussion of the self-diagnosis of long Covid, which has become so hazily defined that scientists struggle to study it. While O’Sullivan’s argument has some paternalistic implications—well-intentioned efforts to withhold complex medical information can reduce patient choice, especially if new or alternative therapies become available—she makes salient points about the challenges of treating patients in a world where, despite scientific advances, "definite answers" about one's health are often elusive. This is sure to spark debate. (Mar.)