Pygmalion Effect

Hi everyone! I write tonight because I want to share with you a personal discovery  I had made this weekend. In my opinion I think that It can be useful for this course that is full of difficulties.

 I am going to talk about the Pygmalion effect (maybe you have you heard something about it before) or also known "the self-fulfilling prophesy" . It is the process by which the beliefs and expectations of a person with respect to another affect in such a manner to its conduct that tends to confirm, that is to say that when we have a firm belief with regard to someone, it is finally fulfilled.

Magic? NO, it's about attitude and be positive! 
In the field of psychology, economics, medicine and sociology, several researchers have conducted very interesting experiments on the Pygmalion effect. The most relevant was one made by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson in 1968, the study concluded that the intellectual development of students is largely a response to the expectations of their teachers and how these expectations are transmitted (If you want more information about I leave here a link where explains better the experiment http://www.energiacreadora.es/ec-4/el-efecto-pigmalion-en-la-educacion/ )

I would also highlight if you look at the biographies of great geniuses, men and women who throughout history have made enormous contributions to humanity, we can see that in many cases there was a person who had a strong hope placed in them. So, that Pygmalion has a scientific explanation: we now know that when someone relies on us and transmits this trust, our limbic system accelerates our thinking increases our clarity and our energy, and therefore our attention, effectiveness and efficiency .

The prophecies tend to take place when there is a strong desire that drives. In the same way that fear tends to occur to cause what is feared, confidence in oneself, even infected by a third party, can give us wings.

So guys, cheer up! WE CAN WITH THIRD COURSE AND MORE!

What Happened When They Treated Autistic Children With Medical Cannabis

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/02/17/what-happened-when-they-treated-autistic-children-with-medical-cannabis/

The big unknown, the depression.

The big unknown, the depression.

A week in a consultation was all I needed to notice that depression is a very common disease in our society. 

I specially remember the case of a men who had a grateful life. He and his wife were going to be grandparents soon but he was very depressed. His life was happy because he had done many improvements so I was shocked because I couldn't imagine how was him when he was bad. He was trying to talk without crying, even talking about happy things. He also made a joke but he was not laughing.  His wife explained that he seemed to be happy with everybody but when he arrived at home, he couldn't even move from a small sofa, he was deeply sad because of no known reason. In fact their friends were shocked when he finally told them that he was depressed, he had everything in life....

What I try to say with this is that you don't need to have big problems like break-up a relationship, do not find a job that really motivates you neither to loose someone. What you feel in these cases is sadness, which is a normal reaction of the human being. But the depression is more than that...

Kevin Breel explains in his video his own personal experience about having depression: (http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_breel_confessions_of_a_depressed_comic#t-592349) 

Depression is something that takes you apart of your normal life, is a continual worry about things, is the inability to be happy but, as he states, the problem is that there is still an stigma in our society 

"if someone breaks his arm, you ask how is him and you sign his/her plaster, but what are you supposed to do when someone tells you that he/she has a mental illness and has depression?"

Depression is not well seen, people do not know how to act so they prefer to be apart of the situation living you more alone trying to solve your problem. 

With this post I try you to to be concern about the necessity of understanding better this disease which is the first world cause of disability according to the OMS and which many people suffer without being recognized such it.

Here I attach you a link to the webpage of the OMS were you can read some useful information about what is depression and types of it: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs369/es/

To end this, here you have another link of an "poetry" explanation of depression. I really get impressed the first time I show it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqu4ezLQEUA

Visit to the offices of Bayer in Berlin at the ESC-Charité

Last week I took part at the European Student Conference orginized by the University of Charité at Berlin.

As part of the workshops I had the chance to visit the offices of Bayer, one of the most important pharmaceuticals in the world , known for the production of the Aspirin among others.

They told us in an interesting conference about the time that takes to develop a drug and the different processes that have to take place by different teams. In this pdf you can found all the information in a way very well explained.

https://pharma.bayer.com/html/pdf/forschung_und_entwicklung/110713_BayerPharma_Bros

ch_en_web.pdf

I recommend to everybody to attend the Conference in the future as Active or Passive participant.

Doctors with ‘angel’

Long ago I read this article and I was amazed by the sweet and grateful words that Tatiana Sisquella conferred to a particular type of physician. For me, it describes perfectly the doctor that I would like to become.

“A doctor, in general, is an expert in any part of your body. So far, so normal. What is more surprising is already meet a doctor who has an angel. These also have a medical career, wear white coat and make bad handwriting, but, unlike others, are defined by how they speak you, how they look you and how they touch you.

A doctor with ‘Angel’ is a person who cures even before starting treatment, a doctor who listens and is surprised by your questions. When they talk to you, they do it imagining that they are the patient and not taken for granted or overlooked anything that can disturb you. They do not get tired of answering the same questions and always find a moment to talk about something that is not the reason for the visit. Angel physicians do not tell lies, but they know how to promote good truths. They have an exquisite criterion when considering treatments and always find a chair somewhere to seat all the passengers. If you have to do a scan, they worry about whether they have cold hands and if you have to read a diagnosis is always accompanied by a drawing or an easy metaphor, so that everyone understands. They are doctors who remember your name before looking at the record and not watch the clock despite working in Social Security. They tend to know not only the names of the nurses, but also how many children they have, if the husband is unemployed or has gone to Venice on holidays. Some even, if necessary, they give their personal phone number in case of anything, be it for a question or a comfort.

I am a long-term patient and I can recognize the difference from just putting one foot in the consult. With a few minutes I know if I found a doctor or an angel. I congratulate all of them. And for my angels I also send them a kiss.

Tatiana Sisquella

Written recovered from the newspaper ARA, 2011”

I don’t know if one day I’ll be one of those doctors but from here I promise you to put a lot of effort and love to get it.

A prescription drug for treat arthitis may be able to help in the fight against Alzheimer's

  In Spain there are some 700,000 people with Alzheimer's for up to 200,000 may be undiagnosed. Worldwide, this figure rises to 47.5 million, according to the World Health Organization. Now, American researchers have shown that a drug already used to treat rheumatoid arthritis can reverse dysfunctions observed in this neurodegenerative disease in mice.

  Salsalate, a drug commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, could in the future be part of the therapeutic arsenal for treating Alzheimer's disease. According to a study published in "Nature Medicine", this available drug reversed dysfunction related to the tau protein, one of the related neurodegenerative disorder, in an animal model of frontotemporal dementia.

Researchers at the Gladstone Institute (USA) have found that the drug prevents accumulation of tau protein in the brain and cognitive impairment protects the characteristic of Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. Specifically inhibit tau acetylation, a chemical process by which the function and properties of a protein is altered. Researchers have found that tau protein is an especially toxic acetylated form of the protein, leading to neurodegeneration and cognitive deficits.

  In their work they found that salsalate reversed successfully these effects in a mouse model of frontotemporal dementia by reducing tau levels in the brain, recovering memory connections and protecting against atrophy of the hippocampus, an important region of training memory that is affected by dementia. Although it is known for some time that the tau protein is one of the processes responsible for dementia, so far had found no treatment to avoid its effects.

  The application of this new drug to treat Alzheimer's could take place very soon. So says Eric Verdin, a researcher of the team, said that "considering that salsalate is a drug already approved a long history of a reasonable safety profile, we believe that may have immediate clinical applications."

It is obviously a good new and I hope this is of great help to treat Alzheimer's. We have to keep waiting... 

How do I feel?

If there were a graph showing my general happiness during a month or a year, it would probably look like a typical echocardiogram. It goes up a little, back down again, down a little more, shoots up very sharply but then quickly descends. Repeat. Repeat in the opposite direction. Repeat again.

Let’s say that there are twelve months in this ECG. Every month has it’s own spike, at least. A downward spike for every time I get stressed before or during or after an exam, every time I have a mini-crisis in my new apartment, every time I panic and wonder if I’ll ever actually know enough Spanish to be able to complete my degree. An upward spike if I do well in an exam, or if a stranger thinks (if only for a second) that my blonde hair and blue eyes are deceiving and that maybe I am Spanish. An upward spike when my mum visits, when I have a nice weekend or when I am reminded of why I decided to become a doctor.

Admittedly, sometimes the spikes last longer than they do in this image, sometimes I feel down for a month or so, or sometimes I feel great. But this is normal. It is ok to feel good, ok to feel bad, and ok to go from one extreme to the other. If we didn’t, then our graph would look more like this:

…And there is something really wrong with this ECG, right? 

If we didn’t feel all kinds of emotions we wouldn’t feel much at all.

So the problem is not that we don’t always feel 100% happy, because who does? There will always be variation, and it’s good that there is. However, there is something that can be done when we are feeling a little low, something that we can try before we need to see a doctor or take medication.

Before we can take any action, we need to understand what exactly it is that we are feeling ~insert emotion~ about.

If it’s positive, I need to know so that I can recognize what makes me feel good and do it again. It could be absolutely anything, like listening to a song or going for a walk or wearing your favourite shoes, and it might take you by surprise.

I listen to this song once in a while as a break from long hours of studying. I get up, dance, and sing around the room like a fool, but it always makes me feel better. Try it, maybe.

BIGkids - Heart Sing

If it’s negative, I need to get to the bottom of it. If there is something I can do, then I can solve the problem and everything will be ok. Sometimes we have relationships that are bad for us or maybe sometimes we spend too much time alone. Either way, I can fix this; I can make myself feel better. And if I can’t personally find a way through it, there will always be someone who I can turn to for help: my family and my friends.

If there is nothing that can be done, then why am I even bothering to get upset about it? Why should I be feeling so low about something that cannot be changed? If I accept it, I can move on and focus on other things, on the things I can improve and the things I enjoy.

Find out what lifts you up, know about what brings you down, accept what cannot be changed and take action on what can. Get some fresh air or listen to your favourite song, have a beer and treat yo’ self.

The best moment....

The best moment to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the other one, is NOW

The art of meditation. Mathieu Richard is said to be the happiest man all over the world.

https://youtu.be/iZwnXj0Ck1k Related to sympathetic activation, it is interesting to note an alternative to face with stress. How would you prescribe such "medicine"?

Culture and Medicine Emotional dimensions of chronic disease. West J Med 2000;172:124-128

Advances in research and the delivery of health care have

reduced mortality from disease and extended life expectancy

in developed countries. We are living longer, but are

we necessarily living better? Those who would have died

from their condition may now survive but there is the

emotional cost of long-term treatment and medical surveillance

to consider (for example, the patient who has had

a liver transplant must then continue immunosuppression

treatment). Such patients must cope with a chronic condition

and yet the emotional dimensions of these conditions

are frequently overlooked when medical care is considered.

Concepts such as the “sick role” and “illness behavior”

have helped us understand the impact of disease

and are familiar to most clinicians. Yet challenges still exist

in the recognition and management of the psychological

and social dimensions of chronic illness.

Summary points

· The emotional dimensions of chronic conditions are

often overlooked when medical care is considered

· It can be difficult to diagnose depression in the

medically ill but diagnosis and treatment are essential

· Doctors may be well equipped for the biomedical

aspects of care but not for the challenges of

understanding the psychological, social, and cultural

dimensions of illness and health

· Clinicians can play an important part in helping their

patients to maintain healthy coping skills

· Clinicians should reflect on the emotional dimensions

of their work, including how professional development

and training may enhance professional satisfaction

and patient care, and the important role that

relationships and outside activities have in providing

balance

Welcome to our blog!

Here you have our blog!!!

Pharma Medicine with heart is created in order to put a human face on Medicine.  Please feel free to share with us everything related that you consider adequate.
 Remember: It Is not necessary to love patients but is necessary to treat patients with love.