the a team

Med school gets a bad wrap for causing depression and physician burnout. To address that concern, here's some data I gathered in an anthropological study of med students on twitter.

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First, clinical requirements for depression: 

One of the symptoms MUST be: 

- depressed mood
- loss of interest or pleasure

At least 4 of these symptoms:

- sleep difficulties
- loss of interest
- guilt
- lack of energy
- concentration problems
- appetite
- psychomotor retardation
- suicidal thoughts

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Now the data: anonymous tweets from real life med students:

"I'm not even studying. I'm just that mentally exhausted I can't even watch tv." (lack of energy, loss of interest)

9:31 AM - "and with that...im crawling back to bed..." (sleep difficulties, lack of energy)

12:41 AM - "guess I should stay up all night..." (sleep difficulties)

"Somebody save me from this week. Straight burnt out" (depressed mood)

"need a study week shirt that says 'talk to me and I'll fucking kill you' ASAP #getmeitnow" (loss of interest)

"Today may be the first time I try RedBull ever. I'm THAT desperate and coffee just ain't cutting it. #studyweek #letitbeoveralready" (sleep difficulties, concentration problems, lac of energy)

"To allow myself a night away from the library, I have to answer online practice questions all night wherever I am. #medschoolproblems" (guilt)

"True Life: I just ate over half a bag over of Sweet and Spicy Chili Doritos and I could have kept going." (appetite)

"Just checked my loan interest. Always a fun time." (depressed mood)

--

I'll let you draw the conclusions. On second thought, I do have one conclusion: more of our class needs to get on twitter. sidenote - I've been thinking of another segment for sidenote called tweet of the week. Basically, I'd just post the best student tweet of the week. Any interest in this? 

see you on the other side,

from ken

enjoy sidenote in 140 characters or less @kensidenotelife.