The Medical Students’ Syndromes – Mark Obeya

The Medical Students’ Syndromes - Mark Obeya

Medical Students’ Syndromes: Ever heard of the second-year syndrome?

Medical students sometimes perceive themselves experiencing the symptoms of a disease they are studying. This is not “the village people” at work. This frequently-reported condition is known as the second-year syndrome, also known as the medical students’ syndrome or intern’s syndrome.

 

I remember my experience rotating through the Gastrointestinal Unit of General Surgery in my first surgery posting quite vividly. This was shortly after crossing to clinical school. Those three weeks linger in my mind, not just because of how stressful they were but also because this was when I caught the syndrome. At the end of the first week, I was convinced that I had an intestinal obstruction—or that I was at least close to having one. About 13 days into the posting, I had still not been able to empty my bowels despite repeated attempts. I was scared, really scared! The paranoia had me estimating how much I would need for surgery, worrying about how I was going to raise the funds, and if I was even going to make it out alive. My then newly-found knowledge of the immediate, short and long term post-op complications was not helping either.



By the end of the second week of the posting, I had cried multiple times in my room. Not being so good at telling people about my worries, I concealed it quite well; but deep down, I was convinced I was dying. In fact, at that point, I was pretty much hugging the angel of death in my imagination.

 

I proceeded to the Accident and Emergency Unit of the hospital to get liquid paraffin—a laxative which was supposed to be my final attempt at salvaging the situation because I feared what surgery would bring. By the next evening, I was in the toilet again for another attempt at seeing if something would come out. When it did, albeit just a little drop, I shouted right there in the toilet, “There it is!” For me, that was the sound of relief, of happiness. And my God, was I happy! Medical Student Syndrome.

 

I would come to learn later that what I had experienced was not uncommon for many fresh clinical students like me. I understood that it was simply my fears feeding on the exposure to something new, something my mind was pretty much not ready for. Quite honestly, that whole episode dealt with the hard guy in me. It also left me thinking that it was necessary to look out for the mental health and psychological states of medical students (especially green ones) more.



Now, have you heard of the other second-year syndrome, which I would rather call the third-year syndrome (based on a little not-so-scientific/anthropological research on my part)?

 

Unlike the first second-year syndrome or medical students’ syndrome, this term, increasingly popular in modern, urban use, refers to the tendency of students in their second or later year(s) of university studies to become disillusioned with their course work. I refer to it as the third-year syndrome because for many students, the first year, being a preliminary year, is not really spent doing their major course work.

 

Medical Student Syndrome

Many of the conversations I had with my colleagues at the beginning of our third year in medical school were centred on how tired we were of school. At the end of that year, at least five members of my class had left medical school and I wondered if this was peculiar to medical students in my school alone. I got into conversations with medical students from other institutions, read interactions on social media platforms, and soon found a similarity of experience across medical schools. I then wondered if students in the non-medical fields shared this mental experience and found out that they did—we were not alone in our thoughts of being tired of school.

 

In all observed cases, this mal-enthusiastic hyper-irritability or frank disinterestedness, secondary to chronic demotivation and other factors seemed to almost always spike and peak in the third year. I concluded that this was perhaps not as strange as it might seem at first glance. Most young persons are on a journey to self-discovery; they are hardly able to put the pieces together before gaining admission and resuming school, which could be boring and tiring for a young mind. Plus, studying in a country like mine, with all the uncertainties that come with it, makes things no less difficult.



The withdrawal rates and complete show of disinterestedness in school work were significantly higher and more drastic among medical students. This is unsurprising especially when one considers the sacrifices made and past glories that most people bring to medical school, glories that often turn sour with discontinuity. Many medical students who have this syndrome would at some point, go many days without reading, attending lectures and/or practical sessions despite the ever-increasing workload and the tests and exams that lurk around every corner.

 

“So, why was it different for medical students?” I thought. Upon further consideration, I concluded that time, coupled with a huge workload, was a big factor. In the third year of study, when most students would have this syndrome, a person studying a 4- or 5-year course would have just a couple of months to be done with school. So perhaps, that feeling of “it will soon be over” keeps them going. For the medical student who still has about three or more years before graduation, that does feel like an endless standing in line. This, I think, makes it worse.



I have had a spell of each of these syndromes. The third-year syndrome did leave “my head running and my body unmoved” on many days and nights. I could even say that I have not left that place where it left me, yet. And I think I just might not leave until I graduate. I often joke about it, saying that “the student in me graduated already”.

 

If you have any of these syndromes sometime in the future or are currently dealing with either (or both), I hope you come out stronger and better; and that you do not lose self while at it. You are not alone in this experience. Seek help when you need to and remember that your mental health is very important.

 

Have you already had any of these? You could share your experience with us. We would be glad to hear from you.

 

 

 

Mark Obeya, 400-level Medicine & Surgery, University of Ibadan and former Headboy – Birrel Avenue Senior High School, Sabo-Yaba, Lagos.

He has a keen interest in politics and governance, philosophy, history, and is also a trained classical music performer. He describes himself as one who is “first, a humanist, before anything else”. He frequently organises outreaches to public secondary schools and tutorial centres in Lagos State (especially Lagos Mainland), with a view to inspiring young people to lead a more goal oriented and purpose driven life, despite the peculiarities of their financial and social challenge, using his personal story as a point of reference. He teaches post secondary school students at various tutorial centres and is looking to setting up his personal tutorial centre. He has also served in various positions at Action Health Inc., University of Ibadan Medical Students’ Association (UIMSA) Senate, and Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI).

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