Saturday, April 18, 2009

ADD

Attention deficit disorder is an interesting thing. Who draws the line between the daydreamer and the kid with a problem? The regular young boy and the one whose hyperactivity is pathologic?

Med school teaches you interesting things. In Behavioral Science I learned that you must be diagnosed by age 7 to have ADD. However, from Student Affairs, I learned that many medical students are diagnosed with it when they get here.

I guess there are exceptions to every rule.

The reason medical students get diagnosed is because many students have ADD, but function highly, and therefore compensate through school. It isn't until the fast pace and time crunches of medical school that their compensation fails and the pathology shows.

Of course, there are imposters too. About 8 - 10% of students in undergrad use stimulants that are for treating ADD as study aids. This off-label use is unethical and illegal, but rampant. The stresses of medical school are greater than undergrad, and so are the pressures to use these stimulants to get ahead.

My school does not grade on a curve, yet I believe we still have at least 10% of my class using Adderall illegally.

--- Sent with System SEVEN - the new generation of mobile messaging

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

blogging again?

I've neglected this blog for the greater part of 2 years, but I've always found it interesting. I can either merge this blog with my general one, or start this up again separate.

Now that i've got this blog set up to receive mobile posts, perhaps a real time blog about med school life is possible...kinda twitter-esque without the word limit.

Or i could just tweet.

--- Sent with System SEVEN - the new generation of mobile messaging