(Wired) – Neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan thinks that modern health care is overdiagnosing people but not necessarily making them healthier—and in fact, that it might be doing more harm than good.

In her new book, The Age of Diagnosis, she backs this assertion with some sobering facts. For instance, between 1998 and 2018, autism diagnoses jumped by 787 percent in the UK alone; Lyme disease has an estimated 85 percent overdiagnosis rate, including in countries where it’s impossible to contract the disease; and there’s still little evidence that many cancer screening programs actually reduce cancer-related death rates.

Ahead of her keynote speech at WIRED Health later this month, O’Sullivan spoke to WIRED to talk about the boundaries between illness and health, the nocebo effect, and the dangers of early detection. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. (Read More)