Teaching pharmacology

(Excerpt from Kalra et al., 2016. Poetry in teaching pharmacology: Exploring the possibilities) - pharmacology students reflect on the “order of preference for drugs” in “building critical thinking skills”

Doctors gave him bronchodilators, corticosteroids

And mast cell stabilizers,

First two came together, through a nebulizer

Reserving Omalizumab, as its price got higher

He coughs less and now breathes better

But misses the teddy on the rug

The teddy could not be given salbutamol

Nor even a shot of cortisol

So leaving him, sadly, the teddy went away

Wish his teddy never had to leave that way

Scientific theories

(In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 118, Alfred Lord Tenyson) - in contemplating Earth’s evolution

Contemplate all this work of Time,

The giant labouring in his youth;

Nor dream of human love and truth,

As dying Nature's earth and lime;

But trust that those we call the dead

Are breathers of an ampler day

For ever nobler ends. They say,

The solid earth whereon we tread

Supporting Mental Health

(Excerpt from Don’t Hesitate of “Devotions,” Mary Oliver) — on the Nocebo Effect (failure expectation)

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,

don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty

of lives and whole towns destroyed or about

to be. We are not wise, and not very often

kind. And much can never be redeemed.

Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this

is its way of fighting back, that sometimes

something happens better than all the riches

or power in the world. It could be anything,

but very likely you notice it in the instant

when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the

case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid

of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.