Does it exist and is it a problem?

In the BU Today’s journal article, “Overdiagnosis: Bad for You, Good for Business,” Lisa Chedekel asserts in an informative and medically focused interview with Professor H. Gilbert Welch that overdiagnosis is indeed a problem that is partially caused by the medical businesses who benefit from it. First and foremost, Welch says that overdiagnosis exists because all humans harbor abnormalities that can increasingly be detected by tests and screenings, and doctors tend to treat for all if they cannot tell which is harmful and which is benevolent. Second, one million people have been diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer in the twenty years since the introduction of a blood test screening for prostate cancer, even if the cancer was only detected in microscopic amounts that would most likely never cause them harm. Third, diagnosis of diabetics has noticeably increased as they continue to lower the average fasting blood sugar for non-diabetics. Finally, the people who benefit the most from overdiagnosis are all medical businesses—hospitals, pharmacies, and others—who accumulate more money by increasing the number of patients they have, not by the betterment of their services. 

Chedekel, Lisa. "Overdiagnosis: Bad for You, Good for Business." BU Today (2011).

               BU Today. Boston University, 26 Oct. 2011. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. 

               <http://www.bu.edu>.

Overdiagnosis is apparent and, most of the time, harmful. It is the result of a broadening list of needless symptoms that classify many people for a disease or disorder. Many people before this would not have qualified for these issues but do now, and thus receive treatment they do not need. This could be indicative of medical businesses trying to gain more money and business from the growing number of patients- in effect they are creating patients, not curing them as they should be. Though there is little proof to show that overdiagnosis is, in fact, a scam, Chedekel and Welch draw attention to the fact that it is a possibility, as much of the time the only people who benefit from it are the ones who rely on it.

An Introduction to the Issue of Over-Diagnosis

It seems like every other person and their mother has a disorder or disease nowadays. Almost everybody we know has depression, ADD, or some other medical condition which keeps them busy with a myriad of pills for every day of the week. We all have that friend who believes his headache is a symptom of brain tumor, his breathlessness after climbing the stairs is undeniably asthma, or his fatigue after the end of each day is depression. So, is America being over-diagnosed? Is there any reason at all that half the people we know taking medication for ADD or depression should be on anything at all? Are doctors perhaps ignoring their Hippocratic oath- First, do no harm- taking advantage of our ability to always sweat the small stuff to make more money? Are we being scammed, or is the increase in diagnoses a result of our expanding knowledge of disorders and diseases that were practically unheard of thirty years ago? This question will be explored over the next couple of months, and hopefully some conclusions can be drawn with more information.