ADHD, Autism and long-Covid are now well-known medical terms, thanks to their rapid rise in cases in the past ten years.
But have things gone too far with rates of diagnosis of many conditions, and in some cases, is it doing more harm than good?
Suzanne O'Sullivan is a British based, Irish neurologist and award-winning author.
In her latest book The Age of Diagnosis she says "overdiagnosis" is turning too many people into medical patients, while those with the greatest need, are becoming invisible.
She gives examples such as a lowering of thresholds for people to be diagnosed with pre-diabetes, or hypertension.
The broadening of screening programmes that many attribute to saving lives, she says, can also result in unnecessarily invasive treatments for some people.
A key theme, is that this increased diagnosis has not always been accompanied by an increased ability to treat.
For some it helps, but for others it may limit their expectations for themselves.
Another key theme, is that there is a medicalising of aspects of the human condition, that is inappropriate.
Suzanne O'Sullivan is calling for new and better vocabularies for suffering, as well as to find ways of supporting people without medicalizing them.
Photo: Supplied/Hachette
