Med Psych Stuff

First off, I'm apologizing for the lack of posts, as the workload for my semester is piling up. I have a med psych exam on monday, patient interview on tuesday, and path exam on friday. The following week, i have pharm exam on tuesday, med pysch presentation on wednesday, and then thanksgiving dinner to cook on Thursday, followed by the 5th semester party on Friday. (Okay, so the dinner and party don't really count as work, but I wanted to put it in so you can see how busy I am).

I have been learning some really interesting facts while studying for med psych. For example, 50% of the alcohol consumed in the US is done so by the top 10% of people who drink. That's a lot of alcohol for such a small population, considering 1/3 of all Americans refuse to drink at all. 75% of car accidents that occur at night is due to alcohol, and 50% of all homicides is due to alcohol. There are alarming figures.

Now, about caffeine, the most overused drug, and the drug of choice for most medical students. 80% of the population consumes 200-250 mg of caffeine per day. This is enough caffeine to actually cause anxiety and dysphoria. The common misconception about caffeine is that you start feeling its effects once you take it. Not so. (That's in your head). You don't start to feel in until at least 30 minutes later, with the peak of the effects not felt until 2 hours after consumption. That means that, when cramming all night before an exam, don't wait until you're tired to drink the coffee.

What I was surprised about that Dr. Pepper, my favorite soda, has actually less caffeine that diet coke (2nd favorite). Weird, huh. Oh, and if you really want to load up on the caffeine, drink an expresso or essentially anything from Starbucks. It's a good way to get a ton of caffeine and to get addicited (that explains why Starbucks restaurants are popping up all over the place...they're drugging all of the customers!!)

Okay, that's enough for now. Lots of studying still to do. Gotta go make some coffee :)