March Blog

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Thankfully March has been a pretty calm month. I got through my two favorite modules- neurology and psychopharmacology and I found both to be fascinating. There were so many drugs that I recognized from my work as a case manager that I took for granted. Certain drugs being more or less "last-lines-of-defense" was something I definitely remembered (TCAs and MAOIs in particular), but some things like bupropion being an especially good choice for people who can previously suffered from a substance use disorder surprised me but made absolute sense in retrospect. It was also interesting to me how you could make inferences (though never absolute determinations) of where someone was on their medication journey based on what medications they were taking as even among the newer drugs there was more or less a preferred first-line, second-line, etc. of treatment. My second point kind of leads to my last point, however, in that my experience as a case manager made me realize as I was studying these drugs how clear it is in theory but how incredibly messy it is in practice. A number of times I saw that X drug was supposed to be given for Y disorder and went "but wait, often I saw Z drug be given instead". This program has given me such an amazing background for understanding medications but I'm humbled by how much I still need to learn about off-label usage.

There's nothing much to say about my volunteering experiences this month. I've continued to love working with my fellow volunteers and I feel like I've been making a difference.


VOLUNTEER HOURS: 23

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