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Thao Pham

10/01/17

ENGW3307

Project 1 Final Draft

Word count: 1492

Citation : APA

The Multilingual Experience

On one hot summer day of 2016, I was on my way to the airport to go to Phu Quoc, an

island located southwest of Vietnam. I was so thrilled to go on my first charity hospital trip to a

rural area to examine and prescribe medicine free of charge for the people. Going with me was a

team of doctors and nurses from The National Hospital II of Vietnam.

Flashback to my childhood, my cousins and I usually spent our time in that hospital,

hanging around, not because we were having any mental problems as our friends often tease us,

its for the reason that my uncles and aunts were working there. They also had clinics at home so

we got to watch them seeing patients every day. One of my uncle is the department head in

forensic science, and one is the leader of the mentoring new doctors team, thus, I and my cousins

always wanted to be like our role models and help people. It feels like its in our blood.

Its tough to be a citizen of a third world country. Medicine is a noble profession, yet, not

being appreciated enough. Doctors mission is to help people, save their lives, without judging

what they do, saving someone from critical conditions always comes first. My uncles always

mention to us the Hippocratic Oath, in which mostly anyone who wishes to practice medical

have to take, usually in their medical school graduation ceremonies, regarding the ethical

standards theyll hold during practice. The Oath contains the medical ethics that first and early
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expressed in the Western World, where Hippocrates was known as the father of medicine (Miles,

2004). However, throughout the years, the Oath hardly applies to everyone. As my cousin

graduated from medical school in Vietnam, he took the Hippocratic Oath but in the revision of

Louis Lasagna. The Lasagnas version later on was adopted by many medical school across the

world, regarding the highlight of emphasizing prevention over cure and to take the psychological

aspects of diseases in account.

Louis Lasagnas groundbreaking studies was on the methodology of clinical trials and the

placebo effect. He was a clinical pharmacologist who researched the underlying psychological

responses to drugs. (Wright, 2003). Coincidentally, earlier that summer, I enrolled in the course

Clinical Neuroscience, where we learned about clinical treatments of neurological disorders

such as generalized anxiety disorders, dissociative disorders, substance dependence disorders and

affective disorders. Therefore, during my stay in Phu Quoc island, I learnt how to apply the

materials I studied into real life. This course was interesting considering that it showed how

doctors listen to the patients and furthermore, using their clinical knowledge to give out medicine

accordingly. I learnt how to identify the clinical symptoms of patients from both the biological

and medical perspective, by measuring their heart rates, blood pressure and listen to their

experiences with the disorder, in which might be restlessness, excessive worrying, sleep

disturbance, having panic attacks, alteration in memory and identity, and oftentimes, mental

disorders come from early abuse. I also learnt about the etiology and epidemiology of these

disorders, the genetic predispositions as well as the abnormalities in brain functionings. After

evaluating these symptoms and taking in account their physiology, we give out primary

diagnosis following the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and a

treatment plan to alleviate the symptoms. On the hospital trip, the doctors told me that we also
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gave out placebo to the patients, in which could also cause a response in the patient when they

consciously taking a subtance, even with no active ingredients (Wright, 2003) since some illness

have psychogenic or emotional origins, the patients belief could produce real physiological

effects (Meyer & Quenzer, 2013).

I find it really compelling clinical neuroscience is a branch of neuroscience that focuses

on the underlying mechanisms of diseases and disorders of the brain and the central nervous

system. Its ongoing determination to seek new ways of diagnosing disorders and eventually

developing medicine and treatments is admirable. After much researchs, I came across how

Louis Lasagna was an early proponent for placebo-controlled trial to test a drugs affectiveness

as well. He made new grounds in clinical research trials and established new requirements for

new drugs to be approved (Wright, 2003).

Another course that I took was Psychopharmacology. In class, I learned about the

pharmacokinetics factors that determine drugs bioavailability and actions. The way a drug is

administrated and its absorbtion along with distribution is crucial to determine its effectiveness,

as well as how compatible it is to bind to the receptors in the brain (Meyer & Quenzer, 2013). I

learned about pharmacodynamics, which is the physiological and biochemical interaction of drug

molecules and the target receptors that are responsible. One example can be cocaine, I learned

about the basic pharmacology of it and its mechanism of blocking the reuptake of

neurotransmitters, which leads to an increased amount of neurotransmitters and blocks the Na+

(sodium) channels, eventually lead to an anesthetic effect. Cocaine is water soluble so it can be

taken orally, intranasally or by IV injection, thats when I realized therere highly addictive

properties to these routes of comsumption following its rapid absorption and distribution and

how people could likely overdose. The chronic cocaine exposure can induce stroke or seizure,
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cardiovascular problems, and abnormalities in brain functions (Meyer & Quenzer, 2013). The

term psychopharmacology was first used by David Macht, an American pharmacogist in 1920,

studying types of psychoactive properties and chemical interactions of drugs with the brain.

(Ban, 2007). To test the bodys hormone levels and toxins in the body, we examine blood plasma

and serums as well as urine toxicity screening.

Credit to my first exposure to handling and processing specimens including blood

plasma, serum and others is to my first Co-op experience at Brigham and Womens Hospital in

the spring. The working hours were hectic, I worked day shifts, night shifts, sometimes evening

shifts, within one week span. However, Ive learnt a lot, from laboratory skills to clinical studies

and their characteristics. As a laboratory technician in a clinical research lab, I received a large

amount of samples a day, as some studies are ongoing for days or weeks, the lab technicians are

working 24/7. Its fascinating to me how testing blood plasma and serum can tell all about ones

proteins and hormones level, such as insulin, cortisol, glucose, etc. as well as toxins in urine. The

study of blood intrigued me.

WWII was the bloom of blood transfusion. Dr. Edwin J. Cohn discovered that plasma

proteins could be separated and partially purified in a medium with controlled factors. The

plasma was breaking down in to albumin, gamma globulin and fibrinogen separately and can be

used clinically. In the laboratory nowadays, we use centrifuges to spin down and separate the red

blood cells and the plasma. Depends on the tests that are going to be performed, each tube of

blood is spinned differently, considering the temperatures, speed, time length. Its funny how

centrifuge today was based on an idea of Antonin Prandlt, who wanted to separate cream from

milk in 1864 (Harris, 1991). In 1869, Friedrich Miescher performed an isolation of a cell

organelle using a crude centrifuge system, which sparked the potential of the usage of the
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centrifuge in the laboratory setting. Since Mieschers development, were able to use centrifuges

to spin down blood samples to test ones physiology and further conduct clinical researchs and

develop many drugs.

I love biology, as well as psychology, and now those two connect. Ive always been

fascinated with the underlying mechanisms of the brains, the blood and how it affects your

behaviors. The clinical neuroscience course, along with psychopharmacology, as well as many

other courses have given me the opportunities to learn about all the things Ive always wanted to

study. The experiences from volunteering in Vietnam, studying and doing co-op in the U.S. have

helped guiding me towards my dream of going to medical school. I want to someday be a great

doctor and help my home country, Vietnam to become better and stronger.

Acknowledgements

Id like to thank my mother for always supporting me through out my life, and always

giving me the opportunities to explore and experience many things in life. Id like to also thank

Professor Musselman and my peers for their comments on my first draft.

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References:

Ban, T. A. (2007). Fifty years chlorpromazine: a historical perspective. Neuropsychiatric

Disease and Treatment, 3(4), 495500.

Harris, James R. Blood Separation and Plasma Fractionation. New York, Wiley-Liss, 1991.

Meyer, J., & Quenzer, Linda F. (2013). Psychopharmacology : Drugs, the brain, and behavior.

Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer Associates.

Miles, Steven H., and ProQuest. The Hippocratic Oath and the Ethics of Medicine. Oxford,

Oxford University Press, 2004.

Wright, Pearce. (2003). Louis Lasagna.(Obituary). The Lancet, 362(9393), 1423.