Pain

Tuesday began with a lecture on pain management, followed by a lecture on painkillers of the NSAID variety: Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (ibuprofen, naproxen, aspirin...). Afterwards, we had a lab on identifying sensory pathways from the anterior 2/3 of the head (on brainstem slides).

Wednesday morning we went over a different class of painkillers, the opiates & opioids (morphine, codeine, heroin, etc...). In the afternoon, we first covered the management of chronic pain, and differentiating between patients who are truly in pain and those exhibiting drug-seeking behavior. Following this lecture, we went over the corticospinal tract, which provides most of the motor function to our body from the neck down.

As for today, we begin by studying the corticobulbar tract, which provides the motor function to our head, including the face, eyes, and jaw. This was followed by a lecture on spinal reflexes and muscle tone, which basically explained why we use reflex hammers and how we are able to sit upright and stand still. In the afternoon, we had a lab over yesterday's corticospinal tract lecture (it seems all the labs are looking at the same slides of brainstem sections). With the test rapidly approaching on Monday, I'll be doing a lot of studying this weekend....