153. We’re Not Getting Sicker — We’re Overdiagnosed

Suzanne O'Sullivan is a neurologist who sees many patients with psychosomatic disorders. Their symptoms may be psychological in origin, but their pain is real and physical — and the way we practice medicine, she argues, is making those and other health problems worse.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Suzanne O'Sullivan, neurologist and author of The Age of Diagnosis How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker, by Suzanne O'Sullivan (2025).
  • "Associations of Depression, Anxiety, Worry, Perceived Stress, and Loneliness Prior to Infection With Risk of Post-COVID-19 Conditions," by Siwen Wang, Luwei Quan, Jorge Chavarro, Natalie Slopen, Laura Kubzansky, Karestan Koenen, Jae Hee Kang, Marc G. Weisskopf, Westyn Branch-Elliman, and Andrea Roberts (JAMA Psychiatry, 2022).
  • "How beliefs about coronavirus disease (COVID) influence COVID-like symptoms? – A longitudinal study." by Liron Rozenkrantz, Tobias Kube, Michael H Bernstein, and John D.E. Gabrieli (Health Psychology, 2022).
  • "Risk factors for worsening of somatic symptom burden in a prospective cohort during the COVID-19 pandemic," by Petra Engelmann, Bernd Löwe, Thomas Theo Brehm, Angelika Weigel, Felix Ullrich, Marylyn Addo, Julian Schulze Zur Wiesch, Ansgar Lohse, and Anne Toussaint (Frontier Psychology, 2022).
  • The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness, by Suzanne O'Sullivan (2021).
  • Brainstorm: Detective Stories from the World of Neurology, by Suzanne O'Sullivan (2018).
  • "The Trauma of Facing Deportation," by Rachel Aviv (The New Yorker, 2017).
  • It's All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness, by Suzanne O'Sullivan (2015).
  • The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel van der Kolk (2014).
  • "Explaining the Rise in Youth Suicide," by David Cutler, Edward Glaeser,
    and Karen Norberg (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2001).

 

• EXTRAS:
  • Counted Out, documentary (2024).
  • "Bringing Data to Life," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • "Adding Ten Healthy Years to Your Life," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • "America’s Math Curriculum Doesn’t Add Up," by Freakonomics Radio (2019).
  • Race to Nowhere, documentary (2010).
  • Data Science for Everyone.

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