The Age of Diagnosis

'She is in my view the best science writer around' SATHNAM SANGHERA

We live in an age of diagnosis: from autism to allergies, ADHD to long Covid, more people are being labelled with medical conditions than ever before. But can a diagnosis do us more harm than good?

In The Age of Diagnosis, neurologist Suzanne O'Sullivan explores how modern medicine is redrawing the boundaries between sickness and health. Genetic tests can now detect pathologies decades before people become unwell, and sometimes before they're even born. Mental health categories like ADHD and depression are shifting and expanding all the time, radically altering what we consider to be 'normal'.

When we are suffering, it's natural to want answers. An accurate diagnosis can bring greater understanding and of course improved treatment. But many diagnoses aren't as definitive as we think. And in some cases they risk turning healthy people unnecessarily into patients.

Drawing on the stories of real people, as well as decades of clinical practice and the latest medical research, O'Sullivan takes us on a moving and revelatory journey through modern illness. Overturning long held assumptions about medical progress, The Age of Diagnosis will change the way you think about your health forever.

Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan has been a consultant in neurology since 2004, first working at The Royal London Hospital and now as a consultant in clinical neurophysiology and neurology at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, and for a specialist unit based at the Epilepsy Society. She specialises in the investigation of complex epilepsy and also has an active interest in psychogenic disorders. Suzanne's first book It's All in Your Head, won both the Wellcome Book Prize and the Royal Society of Biology Book Prize and The Sleeping Beauties was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize.

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