Central PA Medicine Spring 2018 - 27

daup h i n c m s .o
.o rg

lot has changed in the 50 years
since I graduated from Temple
University School of Medicine.
For example, the physical plant
of the medical school is entirely new. The
medical school I attended in figure 1 had
been replaced by the spectacular new façade
in figure 2.

In a similar way medical education has
evolved significantly, with textbooks having
been supplanted by computer modules, and
team learning replacing monotonous solo
memorization of facts. The temptations
of social life are much more varied now as
well. The only party option available in the
1960s was alcohol, but the current medical
students can unfortunately choose from
marijuana, cocaine, opiates, benzodiazepines,
hallucinogenics, and amphetamines, a veritable smorgasbord of illegal, mind bending
options. Some students will take the risk.

"Since the 1980s, the
PHP has provided an
anonymous, safe,
and proven method
to address early
addictive behavior in
medical students."

These factors translate to a potential The PHP provides an anonymous pathway
set-up for disaster. Fortunately, there is to recovery through treatment, monitoring,
now an escape route out of a tight situation advocacy, and peer support. Early recovery
that can spare the medical student's career, from addiction is not necessarily an easy
As much as a medical student's environ- should drug addiction or behavioral con- route to follow, but the outcomes are highly
ment has changed, some things remain the cerns occur. This pathway was not present successful and well worth the effort, especially
same, however. From the perspective of a in the 1960s, and of course I am referring when compared to the alternative.
neurosurgeon and recovering physician, I to the Physicians' Health Program of the
am certain that the reward center of the Foundation of the Pennsylvania Medical
You are your brother's keeper! It is your
ventral tegmental area, nucleus Accumbens, Society. Since the 1980s, the PHP has ethical and legal responsibility to care for
and limbic system has stayed pretty much provided an anonymous, safe, and proven your medical student peers. Call the PHP
the same, and the genetic susceptibility to method to address early addictive behavior for help for you, or for one of your medical
these drugs has remained a constant across in medical students. All it takes is a phone student brothers or sisters; we'll be there
time in a subset of medical students.
call to the PHP, a conference with the Dean when you need us.
of Students, or a visit to student health at
That means that medical students, in your medical school. Or call us directly.
the same proportion as the general public,
remain a potential target for addiction. Add
to that some unique factors common in the
medical student environment:

* Stress of learning the new
language of medicine, with an
unending factual basis
* A sense of denial based upon
past academic success and
* the invincibility of youth
* A common philosophy of
"study hard, play hard"
* A competitive environment
for selective residencies
* An unwillingness to confront
addictive patterns in peers

Central PA Medicine Spring 2018 27

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