Tag: medical student wellness

Aishwarya Rajagopalan Aishwarya Rajagopalan (17 Posts)

Writer-in-Training, Columnist and in-Training Staff Member

Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine


Aishwarya is a second year medical student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She relishes any opportunity to talk policy, social determinants of health, mental health parity and inclusion topics. Outside of school, Aishwarya enjoys yoga, green tea with lemon and copious amounts of dark chocolate.

Doctor of Policy

Doctor of Policy is a column dedicated to exploring and challenging contemporary health policy issues, especially in the fields of behavioral health, health care access, and inclusion, all from the eyes of a public health girl in a basic sciences world




Treatment of Balance Disorder: Lessons from the Samurai Warrior

Before starting medical school, I had the opportunity to travel to Japan and visit an array of Buddhist cities peppered with ancient temples and samurai villages. As I explored these breath-taking communities, I discovered the samurai’s commitment to the pursuit of perfection in lifestyle and skill. Now, as I face the challenges of being a medical student, I find myself turning to the canon of the samurai.

When to Say “No”: Yes, It Gets Messy

Four years. I had gone four years without crying in a faculty member’s or an advisor’s office. And there I was, sobbing all over myself, as I tried to explain the situation. A couple of days prior, I received a terse email from the training director, saying I needed to come in to meet with her. She was not happy with my most recent feat as a doctoral student.

Another Look at the Antidepressant “Myth”

Within the next three years, ketamine, the popular club drug referred to as “Special K,” may replace the current generation of antidepressant drugs. By substantially reducing the latency of antidepressant effect, the use of ketamine as an antidepressant may hold promise and is in fact in Phase 3 trials for FDA approval. But, how does ketamine work to alleviate depressive symptoms, and how does this approach fit with our current understanding of depression? Do we currently understand depression?

Go the Distance

Have you ever spent a night curled up in a ball of blankets rocking yourself, tears streaming down your cheeks, just wishing you could go to sleep and wake up a couple of months later? As a teenager, I had more of these nights than I did nights of restful sleep. There was no particular trigger. I had an idyllic childhood, growing up in a quiet suburb with a loving, supportive family.

This is You on Depression: Results of our Medical Student Mental Health Survey

It has been a little over two years since Kaitlyn Elkins, a second-year medical student at Wake Forest, took her own life. Her death stunned friends and family, who had been largely unaware of her protracted struggle with depression that was ultimately revealed in her suicide note. Kaitlyn’s mother, Rhonda Elkins, dedicated herself relentlessly to advocating for mental health awareness before succumbing to her own grief, committing suicide one year later.

The Beast

“Neuroanatomy lab exam. You’ve got this. You studied hard. You’re good at anatomy, you know that. Okay, found a tag you definitely know. Start at the one you know. You’ll be okay.” It’s the way I try to start every exam. I try to talk myself up to push away all of the negativity slowly flooding my brain. Anxiety is a tough card to be dealt, especially in medical school. There are only so many ways to cope with the mounting pressure.

Goodbyes from a Big Family

In many ways, the students of Class of 2017 have become my second family. In the warm August of 2014, each of us arrived at orientation from different walks of life. We became one in the quiet moments as we donned our ceremonial white coats one after another and nervously found our designated places next to our coating second years. It was not unintentional that we swore the Hippocratic Oath as one — it marked the beginnings of a four-year relationship with each other and our transition from civilian life into medical. It represented an unspoken first moment of camaraderie. It represented the first knot tied in this large professional community.

Nita Chen, MD Nita Chen, MD (39 Posts)

Medical Student Editor and in-Training Staff Member Emeritus

University of Florida Fixel Movement and Neurorestoration Institute


Nita Chen is a current movement disorders fellow at University of Florida Movement and Neurorestoration program. She is Class of 2017 medical student at Albany Medical College. To become cultural, she spent her early educational years in Taiwan and thoroughly enjoyed wonderful Taiwanese food and milk tea, thus ruining her appetite for the rest of her life in the United States. Aside from her neuroscience and cognitive science majors during her undergraduate career, she holed herself up in her room writing silly fictional stories, doodling, and playing the piano. Or she could be found spazzing out like a gigantic science nerd in various laboratories. Now she just holes up in her room to study most of the time.