29-05-2025
Real Health: Are we too quick to diagnose? With neurologist Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan
Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan, consultant neurologist, neurophysiologist, and author of the Age of Diagnosis, joins me on this week's episode of the Real Health podcast.
I was interested in finding out what led the neurologist to write a book on overdiagnosis.
She told me: 'I've been a doctor for nearly 35 years, and in that time, I have just seen a growth in the number of young people coming to me with like 10, 15 diagnoses.
"In my traditional view of medicine diagnosis is supposed to lead to treatment, improvement and recovery and very often these young people who are gathering these long lists of diagnoses don't seem to be leading anywhere.'
The rate of diagnosis in the past decade has gone up, not just for mental health conditions but also physical ones.
The neurophysiologist said: 'I think the things that are growing at the fastest rate are things like ADHD and autism, mental health labels tend to be the most common, but there's also kind of a growth in diagnosis of physical conditions. So, we're constantly changing criteria for things like blood pressure and diabetes. In lots of areas of medicine, we are finding people at earlier stages of diseases with milder symptoms, through technology or changes in attitudes."
You can listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your podcasts.
