Why overdiagnosis is failing the students it claims to help

At one university, the share of students receiving disability accommodations rose sevenfold in a decade. Is that progress? In this episode, health care educator and patient advocate Richard A. Lawhern argues that psychiatric overdiagnosis is handicapping the very students it aims to help, and that the research underneath much of modern psychiatry may not hold up. This episode is based on his article "Why psychiatric overdiagnosis fails the students who suffer," published on KevinMD. You will hear why he says a rise in student diagnoses reflects misallocated help rather than real need, how the replication crisis has undercut studies that shaped the field, and why critics like Allen Frances have questioned the expanding reach of the DSM-5. He also lays out where he thinks families harmed by misdiagnosis may have recourse. Hear the case he makes for why the science behind these diagnoses may not hold up, and what he thinks families can do about it.

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