Soaring rates of diagnoses in illnesses like cancer and diabetes raise concerns about overdiagnosis. Many individuals are being diagnosed with conditions that will not cause symptoms or death. The physical medicine discourse often conveys compassion regarding unnecessary diagnoses, while psychological medicine discussions evoke cynicism. Mental illness is sometimes viewed as a normal human response to distress, with words like 'diagnostic creep' used. Particular scrutiny is placed on conditions like ADHD and autism, with societal implications tied to the increase in diagnoses and parental pressures contributing to the trend.
The claim is that individuals may be prematurely diagnosed with conditions that, although meeting criteria for a disease, will never cause symptoms or death during a patient's lifetime.
Now that there are ever-more sensitive screening tests, and access to predictive genetic information, are doctors handing out too many unnecessary sicknotes?
Mental illness has been described as just an inability to deal with ordinary distress and anxiety.
Increases in diagnoses such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been blamed on sharp-elbowed, middle-class parents trying to avoid the blame for bad parenting.
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