THE MEDICAL STUDENT SYNDROME

It's a major reason why medical students panic so much.
Medical student syndrome "MSS" also named medical student disorder, medical student disease and hypochondriasis of medical students is a condition frequently reported in medical schools nowadays.
It is when healthy students become convinced that they have the diseases they're studying.
MSS is an arbitrary formation of psychiatric symptoms that affect the mood and behaviour of a medical student, present right from the first year of medical school but common especially during the clinical posting of medical school curriculum.
While Medical students are learning medicine they read lists of symptoms for different diseases daily. Although they are completely healthy, they feel that they are suffering from the symptoms of specific diseases and they have it.
During psychiatry posting, hmmmmm, just forget it; every of their actions becomes questionable to them. They suddenly see abnormalities in their behaviours. The brain itself is complex.

"I thought I had all the diseases I read about maybe because of the self Exaggerated symptoms that were present until I spoke with some of my fellow students and found out that I wasn’t the only one with this terrible “disease"." - Miracle (AAU)

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For example; If a medical student is reading about swine flu he may feel its symptoms and do unnecessary laboratory tests to confirm his wrong diagnosis. Funny but true!!!!

"Here is a partial list of conditions I have read about in the past few days: tinnitus, intermittent explosive disorder, Wilson disease, high metabolism, low metabolism, and rabies.
And here is a partial list of conditions I subsequently thought I might have in the past few days: tinnitus, intermittent explosive disorder, Wilson disease, high metabolism, low metabolism, and rabies." - Sediq (UNIJOS)

Any chest pain to them it's Angina Pectoris A stomach(abdominal) gurgle becomes appendicitis. A mosquito bite heralds hemorrhagic fever. Everything is cancer to them. Lol!!!
You're reading your textbook. You start reading about tachycardia, and your feel your heart starts racing. As you study generalized anxiety disorder, your palms are sweaty. You've just finished the chapter on gastroenteritis (commonly known as stomach flu). There's vomit on your sweater already. Hmmmmm.
That's what you get When you're around sick people all day, you start thinking you are sick yourself.
Now the "disease" MSS also includes millions of non medical students who can easily search in the internet about any disease and believe in having its symptoms.

The Web has inflamed all of our worst hypochondriac tendencies by making data on far-fetched syndromes readily available. But what about the people who already live and breathe that information? Or people who are trained to diagnose and treat medical conditions?
If my momentary Internet exposure to the science of my own metabolism was enough to make me sweat about horrible pathologies, then what is it like to be a doctor? Does every pang inspire dread? Do the seductions of self-diagnosis increase when you know whereof you speak?
Fortunately and Unfortunately, some who had worrisome suspicions turn into a realities. Esther a University of Ibadan fourth year medical student had a painless swelling on her breast, due to curiosity she had already diagnosed herself of cancer. This prompted her to go for surgery; when the lump was removed and biopsied, the result was breast cancer. Thankfully, after surgery and chemotherapy, her cancer is now in total remission. Its interesting to note that in this case of actual disease, medical training, knowledge and curiosity were used to suppress an anxiety rather then to create it.

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This story indicates that just like a “regular” patient, many of the medical students are vexed by symptoms worrisome only to them. Dismissal of a medical student’s concerns, however, is the wrong course. Compassion for their anxiety and understanding of their concerns may help alleviate underlying stress or anxiety. More importantly, staying vigilant may allow the diagnosis of actual disease. For in fact, medical students are people too and get sick at just about the same rate as the rest of the population.
The MSS has been on since the Medieval age. So freight not, you are not alone. Let your mind be at rest and not bothered by the expansion of your pathological knowledge.

Above all - be happy!!!