D is for diagnosis.

In this episode of Four Thought, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist Dr Ann York reflects critically on diagnosis, both in her personal life and her career. She recounts her experience being diagnosed with breast cancer. She talks about the function of labels and labelling people within diagnoses, and how this might impact on the individual. She recounts the complex burden of being made to choose between cancer treatments, and posits that diagnosing a patient might come with the unforeseen responsibility of knowing when they want you to make the choice for them. York concludes, based on her personal experience, that often diagnostic labelling can be overwhelming for the patient. She therefore suggests that it is her job, as a medical professional, to let her patients use her as an expert to appraise the sometimes overwhelming amount of information and selection that comes with being diagnosed.