By Nirbhay Kaul 12 February 2022. 15 minutes. A failing system. That was all it took for little Pearl (assigned name) to end her own life. Dear reader, you are about to embark on a journey with me through my experiences shadowing in a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
Written By Girish Greedharry Going through medical school, I find that there is something apathetically robotic in the way we get indoctrinated with the principles of what makes, in theory, a good doctor. Teachings of clinical practice encompass all the right things you should say - whether a patient approaches you
Reframing the way we prescribe drugs in chronic disease. Written By Angharad Bridges Methotrexate, which is often denoted by MTX, is an antineoplastic, immunosuppressant drug commonly used to manage a wide range of autoimmune conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), and psoriasis. Sometimes, it
Written By Antonia Beevor Martinez The principle of autonomy is a core tenet of medical ethics, but the NHS’ current system for gender-affirming care seems to fly in the face of this. It is a system that prioritises the opinion of clinicians over patients in matters of identity, leading
Written By Mahin Miah We’ve all heard of the training bottleneck that many newly-qualified doctors are facing after having completed their two foundation training years. It has resulted in unemployment for some, despite working arduously since their teenage years for this vocation. But why is that? This can
Written By Theodore Spaliviero-Shaw “Data! Data! Data! I cannot make bricks without clay!” exclaimed Sherlock Holmes. Played by Robert Downey Jr. in the 2009 Guy Ritchie adaptation, the eccentric Holmes reminds us that for any scientific conclusion, we must have rigorous and validated data to substantiate it, as is
Written By Harshitaa Sendhilkumar I keep noticing patterns around me - things nobody else seems to see. That sounds really intense. I hear you, and it makes sense that noticing things like that would feel overwhelming. Maybe I’m meant to understand something bigger than everyone else? I can hear how
Written By Kajol Aryal Medicine today has no doubt developed from an amalgamation of practices and knowledge systems across cultures and countries. Foundational surgical writings and herbal medication practices are found in Chinese, Arabic, Ayurvedic, and Greek sources¹, among others, each contributing in some form to medicine today. For instance,
By Saarah Chowdhury What happens when medication causes harmful behavioural change, and what happens when that link isn’t detected for years? Blame can be placed on the patient, the medication, or any of the systems that join the two together; however, there are many instances of the former bearing
Written By Anagha Sreeram The role of a mother is unequivocally crucial in any society, but those undergoing motherhood are often judged. Society implicitly assigns values, requiring mothers to pass a series of tests to be considered “good”, penalising mothers who do not fit norms. This means that mothers, as
By Ayah Abdirizak “During this total darkness in Medieval Europe, they [the Muslims] lighted and fed the lamps of our science - from the Guadalquivir [in Spain] to the Nile [in Egypt] to the river Oxus [in Russia].” - Professor Julius Hirschberg, July 1905 When you think about the history of medicine,
Written By Charlotte Muller Introduction The romanticisation of mental illness may feel like a distinctly modern obsession – born in the advent of social media, sustained by TikTok trends, and reinforced by the multimedia aestheticization of suffering. But how recent is this phenomenon? And what are its consequences? Over the last