A neurologist discusses the dangers of overdiagnosing conditions from Lyme disease to ADHD in an era where technology meets pathology

For many years, people living in Lyme, Connecticut, were plagued by mysterious flu-like symptoms, rashes and joint pains. Patients were convinced that their symptoms had something to do with the deer that roamed the nearby woods and the ticks they frequently found clinging to their clothes. But because the symptoms were so ill-defined and there was no treatment, physicians dismissed the symptoms as psychosomatic.

Then in 1975, alarmed by the exceptionally high rates of juvenile arthritis in Lyme, the Connecticut health department decided to investigate. It took seven years but eventually, in 1982, they identified a spiral-shaped bacterium in the midgut of deer ticks that was also present in the blood of sick people. All it took to spark the disorder was for an infected tick to latch on to an unsuspecting victim and inject the bacterium under their skin.

We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.

This week, from 2022: As I finished the final house calls of my long career in general practice, it struck me how detached I am from my patients now – and that it was not always like this. Where did we go wrong, and what can we do to fix it?

By Clare Gerada. Read by Lucy Scott