Like this:

(Jean-Martin Charcot. from en.wikipedia.org)

Today was…not the greatest day for lectures. Let’s just leave it at that. It doesn’t help that we have a readiness exam tomorrow morning.

***

Today we talk about how neurons and glial cells respond to injury, which gives us an idea of how the brain and the nervous systems respond to trauma. We also have a lecture on multiple sclerosis (MS), and we do an E-Learning Lab on neurohistology, which means we sit in the classroom and work through a powerpoint about how to read microscope slides of neurons. The TAs and lecturers stay around if we have any questions. (We can leave and do this on our own if we want.)

Among the tibdits we learn today:

• They Might Be Giants has a song called “Countrecoup”, which Dr. Jaworski plays for us. It refers to a term where a head injury occurs on the opposite site of where head trauma occurred. Not too surprisingly, the lyrics are scientifically correct.
• You cannot diagnose a concussion with an imaging study like an X-ray or CT scan. You can use them to find a contusion, however.
• Demyelinating diseases (i.e. diseases that cause neuronal degradation) are often caused by a viral infection, but they can also be caused by childbirth. “I’m not calling childbirth an infection.”
• The neurons of the central nervous system (i.e. brain and spinal cord) ARE in fact capable of regenerating. So why haven’t we found a cure for paralysis? Because the cellular environment of those neurons does not allow them to grow. If we were to give them the appropriate growth factors and remove the inhibiting factors, then maybe…
• According to Sigmund Freud, his mentor Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot kept a charlady who kept dropping plates and platters for several years. Why?  Apparently after she died, he autopsied her and to prove she had what we now know is MS.

***

Tuesdays mean MSLG. Today we had two patients with psychiatric conditions come in to tell us their stories. Wonderful timing considering we’re starting Neural Science.  

As I find myself writing so often, obviously I can’t divulge details. But what I can write is that in medicine right now, psychiatry gets a bad rap, due to notions that psychiatry is a “lesser” intellectual field and that people with mental conditions just need to fix themselves. As Dr. Forehand said yesterday, you don’t tell your pancreas to fix itself when there’s a problem. So why would you do that for your brain?

We asked the patients who visited us what advice they had for us. One noted that the best question her doctor ever asked her was, “What are you reading?” It turned out she was reading a book that was adding fuel to her depression, and so she was able to recognize that and stop reading it. But also, it indicated that her doctor had some interest in her whole life, not just for her condition. After all, people are more than the sum of their illnesses.

Josh Pothen (UVM’s Meager Med Student)

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