Is There a Crisis of Overdiagnosis in Modern Medicine? With Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan

More people are being labelled with medical conditions than ever before. Diagnoses of autism, ADHD, allergies, and long COVID have skyrocketed - but are we actually getting less healthy? In this episode, neurologist Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan speaks to Dr Güneş Taylor about an impending crisis of overdiagnosis. Drawing on histories of real people, as well as decades of clinical practice and the latest medical research, O’Sullivan argues her research indicates that ordinary life experiences, bodily imperfections, sadness and social anxiety are being subsumed into the category of medical disorder. In other words: we are not getting sicker – we are attributing more to sickness. Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan is a neurologist and writer. She is the author of The Age of Diagnosis, as well as previous books including It’s All in Your Head and The Sleeping Beauties. Dr Güneş Taylor is a science broadcaster and Fellow at the Centre for Reproductive Health. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or

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Is There a Crisis of Overdiagnosis in Modern Medicine? With Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan is an episode from Intelligence Squared by Intelligence Squared.

This episode is 48:24 long.

This episode was published on Apr 12, 2026.

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