Yeah. 8 days until we find out. This is killing me.
Yeah it gonna be 8 days. People always say, “oh it’s not worth getting anxious about”. Umm anxiousness is not something that is really controllable. It’s a natural response to a stressful situation that happens to play a huge role in all of our lives. The difference between getting into med school now versus 4 years from now is a big difference. However, for people who have already gotten into other med programs it’s probably wayyy less stressful. To me, I can live with rejection or acceptance but I just want to know which one it is so I can pursue my other options and move on…
Actually Anxiety is very much a learned response although there are some genetic polymorphisms. It’s why treatments such as Psychotherapy, Behavioral Therapy, SSRIs, Anxiolytics, Biofeedback, Yoga, etc. are so successful in treating and managing it. It’s a problem when it causes impairment in daily activities.
“The difference between getting into med school now versus 4 years from now is a big difference.” — I realize to 18 year olds, 2 years feels like this HUGE difference, but it really isn’t. You all will realize this soon enough, as you won’t believe it now at your age.
There’s a difference between “real” anxiety and stress due to college decisions… And some people are content enough with being doctors. I don’t have to go to Harvard med school to be content with being a doctor. I would be plenty content going to UMKC.
I didn’t talk about institution at all just now. You said that getting into medical school now vs. in 4 years is a “big difference”. From a time standpoint - it isn’t. More than 98% of medical students apply to medical school after completing a comprehensive bachelor’s degree.
The reason behind anxiety (or anxiousness) is irrelevant. The same neurophysiologic mechanisms are activated. The fact that this varies depending on the stressor, proves that it is in fact controllable.
If anybody is interested, here is the match day list for UMKC SOM 2014: <a href=“http://www.med.umkc.edu/sa/match.shtml”>http://www.med.umkc.edu/sa/match.shtml</a>
@spmo96, thank you. I think the match list is very impressive!
@spmo96, Thank you for the link. The match list is much better than previous years. I think, UMKC SOM graduates found a way to get into good specialities.
No problem. I was thinking the same thing…their match list seems to be improving each year. Still the majority of them still stay in Missouri because it is a state school, but more of them are branching out this year which is nice to see.
@IMGDAD, not surprised that you would find it impressive.
In reality, lower ranked medical schools are not going to have as impressive match lists with respect to the competitive specialties, institution, and locations, due to their lower level of infrastructure, lack of residency programs in certain so-called competitive specialties, and perception on the quality of students coming out of that school by residency PDs.
This will become even more important with more new, untried med schools popping up and more and students flocking to specialties in droves over primary care due to the intense debt load and health care reform.
You’ll have obvious flukes, many of which can be explained with being AOA or take years off for research during med school (while your loan interest accrues), and sometimes family connections.
The phenothiazines such as chlorpromazine would probably be more suitable than SSRi.
SSRIs are generally first-line in treatment for anxiety due to their side-effect profile and decreased potential for abuse and addiction (unlike benzodiazepines which have high rates of abuse and addiction). See here: <a href=“http://www.uptodate.com/contents/pharmacotherapy-for-generalized-anxiety-disorder”>http://www.uptodate.com/contents/pharmacotherapy-for-generalized-anxiety-disorder</a>
Phenothiazines, such as chlorpromazine, are more used to treating disorders that have a psychotic component (hence why they’re called antipsychotics), such as Schizophrenia. It is definitely not first line to treating anxiety, at least not here in the United States.
I received a thank you note in the mail today from UMKC SOM. So hopefully we should be hearing back sometime next week 
I also received the thank you note. Good luck to all who interviewed only a few more days and we will find out.
@Roentgen, you are absolute correct in your effort to differentiate SSRi from the phenothiazines. I was recommending the major psychotropics for treatment of the sociopathic and unsupportive characters sometimes observed on this thread.
The topic at hand was anxiety, referring to PursuittoExcel since he was the one who brought up anxiety referring to “Umm anxiousness is not something that is really controllable.”(not true at all). Again, anxiety was the topic at hand.
You would also know, having learned from medical school I’m sure, that what you characterize (wrongly) as “sociopathy” or characterize as “unsupportive” (hardly a bad attribute depending on the circumstance), neither of which have actual medication treatments. Your lack of knowledge in this area is not surprising, considering the usual IMG mode of thinking towards the field of Psychiatry. But I’m sure this opinion will magically change if the reimbursement structure changes (i.e. more $$$) towards Psychiatry services.
“Sociopaths are usually defined as people displaying anti social behavior which is mainly characterized by lack of empathy towards others”.
@IMGDad, if you’re going to copy and paste directly from a blog website, as you did, you should probably include the entire section:
Sociopaths are usually defined as people displaying anti social behavior which is mainly characterized by lack of empathy towards others that is coupled with display of abnormal moral conduct and inability to conform with the norms of the society. People suffering from antisocial personality disorder are often referred to as sociopaths. Some of the other characteristics that sociopaths may display are stealing, lying, lack of remorse for others and towards living beings, irresponsible behavior, impulsive behavior, drug or alcohol abuse, problems with the law, violating rights of others, aggressive behavior and much more.
Quite a loaded term to accuse against people who disagree with your ideology, but not at all surprised you chose to do so.
Paranoia, as defined by the American Psychiatric Association, includes the following characteristics:
<ol>
<li>Perception of character attacks that are not apparent to others and response of angry reaction and counterattack.</li>
<li>Bearing grudges persistently.</li>
<li>Quick to interpret benign remarks into personal demeaning attacks.</li>
</ol>