March ePortfolio Blog

 Community Service Hours Completed this Month: 0

Total Community Service Hours Completed: 3

March was a good month! Socially this month encompassed my birthday and visits from friends and family, which all gave me a very much needed serotonin boost, but put into perspective the time left in this program and ultimately New Orleans and the impending decisions that need to be made about my next steps. In terms of coursework, this month focused on the neurology and psychopharmacology modules, which were very interesting in various ways. Firstly, psychopharmacology is such a complex subject in that it really gets in to how the physiological, biological and chemical ongoings of an individual result in varying psychological and behavioral manifestations unlike the highly physical conditions we've previously discussed. And because this realm of medical conditions are highly subjective and typed as disorders, which make determining pathophysiology difficult, developing and managing treatment has had varying effects on those affected, which makes me sad for the suffering of these individuals as I cannot imagine how the tough the battle is at fighting your own mind and even if they are able to seek treatment, there is a chance the medications will not have full efficacy or work at all and might have highly unpleasant side effects. Though, I am excited for advances in precision medicine to possibly aid in lessening the treatment gap in psychopharmacology to use genetic profiling to help specifically target the issues for each individual. Secondly, this topic is highly impactful to someone of my age and living in this day and time, where they know someone or even they might affected by one of the conditions discussed and taking one or multiple of the psychopharm drugs, so it's very helpful to learn of the manifestations of these conditions and the drug profiles to better understand and acquaint yourself with what's happening. Overall, I enjoyed this month's modules and cannot believe after one more CCM exam and the NBME final, this will  be over. Now on to completing more community service hours and studying for this shelf exam!

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