Australia is responding to the complex challenge of overdiagnosis

Mendelson, George

doi:10.5694/mja2.50211

Topics

To the Editor: I read with interest the article by Moynihan and colleagues1 and commend the authors on their timely review of this important topic. While the article referred to research that had highlighted concerns about overdiagnosis in relation to several medical and surgical conditions, the only psychiatric condition mentioned was attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Monash University, Melbourne, VIC

Correspondence: George.Mendelson@monash.edu

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

1. Moynihan R, Barratt AL, Buchbinder R, et al. Australia is responding to the complex challenge of overdiagnosis. Med J Aust 2018; 209: 332–334. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2018/209/8/australia-responding-complex-challenge-overdiagnosis.
2. Conrad P, Mackie T, Mehrotra A. Estimating the costs of medicalization. Soc Sci Med 2010; 70: 1943–1947.
3. Mulder RT. An epidemic of depression or the medicalization of distress? Perspect Biol Med 2008; 51: 238–250.
4. Breslau N, Kessler RC. The stressor criterion in DSM‐IV posttraumatic stress disorder: an empirical investigation. Biol Psychiatry 2001; 50: 699–704.
5. Kleinman A. The normal, the pathological, and the existential. Compr Psychiatry 2008; 49: 111–112.

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