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Available for over a year

A thought-provoking new book from the neurologist and award-winning author Suzanne O'Sullivan, asking whether our culture of medical diagnosis can harm, rather than help us. The boundaries between sickness and health are being redrawn. Mental health categories are shifting and expanding, radically altering what we consider to be 'normal'. Genetic tests can now detect pathologies decades before people experience symptoms, and sometimes before they're even born. And increased health screening draws more and more people into believing they are unwell. 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 into patients. Drawing on the stories of real people, as well as decades of clinical practice and the latest medical research, Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan overturns long held assumptions and reframes how we think about illness and health. Today: Is the diagnosis of some cancers through screening resulting in unnecessary treatment? Reader: Brid Brennan Writer: Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan has been a consultant in neurology since 2004, specialising in the investigation of complex epilepsy, as well as an award-winning author. Her first book It's All in Your Head, won both the Wellcome Book Prize and the Royal Society of Biology Book Prize. Abridger: Katrin Williams Producer: Justine Willett