Doctors' Training Includes Visit to Treatment Center January 9, 2003
News Summary
To provide medical students with training about addiction and recovery, a class at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York offers a session at an addiction-treatment center, the New York Times reported Dec. 24.As part of the class, "Medicines, Patients and Society," students take part in an informal session at Phoenix House in Queens.
"Medical students often have misconceptions about people who are addicted or in recovery," said Dr. Terry Horton, medical director of the program, which began eight years ago. "Students and interns often only see addicts as the guy in the E.R. who ripped out his IV, or the street person who is uncooperative. But in an urban setting, an estimated one-third of patients are going to be addicted. A medical student who becomes a physician in the community who hasn't learned that addiction is a brain disease is not going to be effective."
During the sessions, residents share with students the circumstances that led to their addiction. For instance, Roy Jackson, an 18-month resident of Phoenix House, described the years of physical and sexual abuse that led to his drug use at age 16.
The exchange enables medical students to see addicted individuals as real people.
"I volunteered in the E.R., and I saw drunks who came in who were unmanageable and unruly, out of control," said Jonathan Austrian, a medical student at Cornell. "My initial instinct was that this is their own fault and people like this create long lines and prevent other patients from receiving care.
"But after hearing the stories, I am much more empathetic because I understand how fragile these people are, even those in recovery. One false step, one taste of crack, they could be thrust back into the depths of their hell. This was a powerful lesson."
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