The Rx Bricks Podcast

Pain is a sensation that warns of potential injury and alerts the person to avoid or treat it. For example, if you touch a hot object, you will feel pain and immediately remove your hand from that object, protecting your hand from further damage. As much as pain can burden and torment, ultimately it is an essential part of our bodies’ mechanisms of self-preservation.

Pain can be mild or severe, constant or intermittent, sharp or dull. Sometimes it can even be hard to describe the uncomfortable sensation in words. Nevertheless, clinicians always ask their patients to describe their pain. Why? Because its characteristics can help us better determine the mechanism behind a patient’s pain.

In the clinic, the patient’s subjective experience of pain can be crucial to arriving at the correct diagnosis and treatment. For this reason, understanding the different kinds of pain and their underlying biology is an essential building block of foundational clinical knowledge.

There is no standard system of classifying pain. In this discussion, we will classify the five main types of pain as nociceptive, breakthrough, inflammatory, neuropathic, and functional.

After listening to this AudioBrick, you should be able to:

You can also check out the original brick on Pain Mechanisms from our Neurology and Special Senses collection, which is available for free.

Learn more about Rx Bricks by signing up for a free USMLE-Rx account: www.usmle-rx.com

You will get 5 days of full access to our Rx360+ program, including nearly 800 Rx Bricks.  After the 5-day period, you will still be able to access over 150 free bricks, including the entire collections for General Microbiology and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

***

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.  It helps with our visibility, and the more med students (or future med students) listen to the podcast, the more we can provide to the future physicians of the world.

Follow USMLE-Rx at:

Learn how you can access over 150 of our bricks for FREE: https://usmlerx.wpengine.com/free-bricks/

As we eat, our gastrointestinal (GI) system releases a host of both local and distant regulators to control the process of digestion. We will begin with the primary hormones, then cover some of the secondary hormones, and lastly discuss how our body senses its intraluminal contents and then subsequently integrates all of the various stimuli it receives.

After listening to this AudioBrick, you should be able to:

You can also check out the original brick on Gastrointestinal Regulatory Substances  from our Gastrointestinal collection, which is available for free.

Learn more about Rx Bricks by signing up for a free USMLE-Rx account: www.usmle-rx.com

You will get 5 days of full access to our Rx360+ program, including nearly 800 Rx Bricks.  After the 5-day period, you will still be able to access over 150 free bricks, including the entire collections for General Microbiology and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

***

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.  It helps with our visibility, and the more med students (or future med students) listen to the podcast, the more we can provide to the future physicians of the world.

Follow USMLE-Rx at:

Learn how you can access over 150 of our bricks for FREE: https://usmlerx.wpengine.com/free-bricks/

Headaches are an unavoidable fact of life and often are nothing more than the result of sitting through one too many lectures. However, they can become debilitating and get in the way of daily life, especially when they become recurrent. Although some headaches have symptoms other than head pain, we typically think of headache pain relative to its location, how intense it is, and how long it lasts.

After listening to this AudioBrick, you should be able to:

You can also check out the original brick on Migraine, Cluster, and Tension Headaches from our Neurology and Special Senses collection, which is available for free.

Learn more about Rx Bricks by signing up for a free USMLE-Rx account: www.usmle-rx.com

You will get 5 days of full access to our Rx360+ program, including nearly 800 Rx Bricks.  After the 5-day period, you will still be able to access over 150 free bricks, including the entire collections for General Microbiology and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

***

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.  It helps with our visibility, and the more med students (or future med students) listen to the podcast, the more we can provide to the future physicians of the world.

Follow USMLE-Rx at:

Learn how you can access over 150 of our bricks for FREE: https://usmlerx.wpengine.com/free-bricks/

he ductus arteriosus (DA) is a structure that allows blood pumped from the right side of the heart to bypass the lungs while the fetus is developing in utero. Normally, the DA closes shortly after birth and becomes the ligamentum arteriosum. When the DA fails to close (remains open, or patent) after birth, it is known as patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). This acyanotic congenital heart defect causes abnormal blood flow from the left to the right side of the heart and can lead to heart failure and failure to thrive in neonates.

After listening to this AudioBrick, you should be able to:

You can also check out the original brick on Patent Ductus Arteriosis from our Cardiology collection, which is available for free.

Learn more about Rx Bricks by signing up for a free USMLE-Rx account: www.usmle-rx.com

You will get 5 days of full access to our Rx360+ program, including nearly 800 Rx Bricks.  After the 5-day period, you will still be able to access over 150 free bricks, including the entire collections for General Microbiology and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

***

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.  It helps with our visibility, and the more med students (or future med students) listen to the podcast, the more we can provide to the future physicians of the world.

Follow USMLE-Rx at:

Learn how you can access over 150 of our bricks for FREE: https://usmlerx.wpengine.com/free-bricks/

In typical reproductive system development, recall that the intermediate mesoderm forms the mesonephric (Wolffian) and paramesonephric (Müllerian) ducts and the indifferent gonads; primitive germ cells migrate into the indifferent gonads. These are the structures that become the internal organs of the reproductive systems.

After listening to this AudioBrick, you should be able to:

You can also check out the original brick on Congenital Disorders of the Reproductive Systems from our Reproductive collection, which is available for free.

Learn more about Rx Bricks by signing up for a free USMLE-Rx account: www.usmle-rx.com

You will get 5 days of full access to our Rx360+ program, including nearly 800 Rx Bricks.  After the 5-day period, you will still be able to access over 150 free bricks, including the entire collections for General Microbiology and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

***

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.  It helps with our visibility, and the more med students (or future med students) listen to the podcast, the more we can provide to the future physicians of the world.

Follow USMLE-Rx at:

Learn how you can access over 150 of our bricks for FREE: https://usmlerx.wpengine.com/free-bricks/

Substance use disorder (SUD) refers to a pattern of substance use—be it nicotine, cannabis, cocaine, or something else—that causes significant impairment or distress to the user. SUD is prevalent and growing in the United States and around the world. People of any age may be at risk for developing a substance use disorder. But exposure to and experimentation with alcohol and drugs usually begins in early adolescence. Many adolescents experiment with substances and then taper down or stop using them. Others continue to advance their drug use, leading to a diagnosable substance use disorder with negative health and social consequences.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fifth edition; DSM-5) is the widely accepted and respected guide to diagnosing psychiatric disorders in the United States. Substance abuse has been recognized in the DSM-5 as a mental health disorder for many years. The manual no longer describes substance abuse and dependence separately but instead globally uses substance use disorder with specifiers to determine the severity of the use.

After listening to this AudioBrick, you should be able to:

You can also check out the original brick on Substance Use Disorders from our Psychiatry collection, which is available for free.

Learn more about Rx Bricks by signing up for a free USMLE-Rx account: www.usmle-rx.com

You will get 5 days of full access to our Rx360+ program, including nearly 800 Rx Bricks.  After the 5-day period, you will still be able to access over 150 free bricks, including the entire collections for General Microbiology and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

***

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.  It helps with our visibility, and the more med students (or future med students) listen to the podcast, the more we can provide to the future physicians of the world.

Follow USMLE-Rx at:

Learn how you can access over 150 of our bricks for FREE: https://usmlerx.wpengine.com/free-bricks/

Stimulant medications are drugs that increase alertness and attention. They also elevate heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate. Stimulants are used to treat many conditions, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), chronic lethargy, narcolepsy, and obesity. Examples of stimulants include caffeine, amphetamines (such as dextroamphetamine), methylphenidate, and modafinil.

Cognitive-enhancing drugs serve a similar purpose, increasing memory, alertness, and attention. These drugs are used to treat Alzheimer disease, Lewy body dementia, and other neurocognitive disorders.

After listening to this AudioBrick, you should be able to:

You can also check out the original brick on Stimulants and Cognitive-Enhancing Drugs from our Psychiatry collection, which is available for free.

Learn more about Rx Bricks by signing up for a free USMLE-Rx account: www.usmle-rx.com

You will get 5 days of full access to our Rx360+ program, including nearly 800 Rx Bricks.  After the 5-day period, you will still be able to access over 150 free bricks, including the entire collections for General Microbiology and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

***

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.  It helps with our visibility, and the more med students (or future med students) listen to the podcast, the more we can provide to the future physicians of the world.

Follow USMLE-Rx at:

Learn how you can access over 150 of our bricks for FREE: https://usmlerx.wpengine.com/free-bricks/

If you’ve studied the hematopoietic system malignancies—all the leukemias, lymphomas, and plasma cell disorders—you probably feel like you’ve been hit with the good old medical school fire hose. Now’s a good time to take a step back from all the details, make sure that you remember the underlying framework, and pull together some information that connects several different diseases.

In this brick, we’ll revisit some of the hematopoietic diseases that we often talk about in pairs: acute vs chronic leukemias, benign lymph node diseases vs lymphoma, and low-grade vs high-grade lymphomas. Also, in case you haven’t already done this on your own, we’ll pull together all the important translocations, their respective diseases, and the reasons why we should remember them.

After listening to this AudioBrick, you should be able to:

You can also check out the original brick on Hematopoietic Malignancies: Putting It All Together from our Hematology collection, which is available for free.

Learn more about Rx Bricks by signing up for a free USMLE-Rx account: www.usmle-rx.com

You will get 5 days of full access to our Rx360+ program, including nearly 800 Rx Bricks.  After the 5-day period, you will still be able to access over 150 free bricks, including the entire collections for General Microbiology and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

***

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.  It helps with our visibility, and the more med students (or future med students) listen to the podcast, the more we can provide to the future physicians of the world.

Follow USMLE-Rx at:

Learn how you can access over 150 of our bricks for FREE: https://usmlerx.wpengine.com/free-bricks/

Substance use disorder (SUD) refers to a pattern of substance use—be it nicotine, cannabis, cocaine, or something else—that causes significant impairment or distress to the user. SUD is prevalent and growing in the United States and around the world. People of any age may be at risk for developing a substance use disorder. But exposure to and experimentation with alcohol and drugs usually begins in early adolescence. Many adolescents experiment with substances and then taper down or stop using them. Others continue to advance their drug use, leading to a diagnosable substance use disorder with negative health and social consequences.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fifth edition; DSM-5) is the widely accepted and respected guide to diagnosing psychiatric disorders in the United States. Substance abuse has been recognized in the DSM-5 as a mental health disorder for many years. The manual no longer describes substance abuse and dependence separately but instead globally uses substance use disorder with specifiers to determine the severity of the use.

After listening to this AudioBrick, you should be able to:

You can also check out the original brick on Substance Use Disorders from our Psychiatry collection, which is available for free.

Learn more about Rx Bricks by signing up for a free USMLE-Rx account: www.usmle-rx.com

You will get 5 days of full access to our Rx360+ program, including nearly 800 Rx Bricks.  After the 5-day period, you will still be able to access over 150 free bricks, including the entire collections for General Microbiology and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

***

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.  It helps with our visibility, and the more med students (or future med students) listen to the podcast, the more we can provide to the future physicians of the world.

Follow USMLE-Rx at:

Learn how you can access over 150 of our bricks for FREE: https://usmlerx.wpengine.com/free-bricks/

Megaloblast. Now there’s a word you don’t hear every day. The root -blast (from the Greek blastos, meaning germ or bud) may be somewhat familiar since we talk about blast cells (very young hematopoietic precursor cells) in hematology. And megalo- (from the Greek megas, meaning large or great) is also used fairly frequently, as in splenomegaly (enlargement of the spleen). So does “megaloblast” just mean a large, immature cell? We’ll answer this question, and many more, in this discussion of megaloblastic anemia.

After listening to this AudioBrick, you should be able to:

You can also check out the original brick on Megaloblastic Anemia from our Hematology collection, which is available for free.

Learn more about Rx Bricks by signing up for a free USMLE-Rx account: www.usmle-rx.com

You will get 5 days of full access to our Rx360+ program, including nearly 800 Rx Bricks.  After the 5-day period, you will still be able to access over 150 free bricks, including the entire collections for General Microbiology and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

***

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.  It helps with our visibility, and the more med students (or future med students) listen to the podcast, the more we can provide to the future physicians of the world.

Follow USMLE-Rx at:

Learn how you can access over 150 of our bricks for FREE: https://usmlerx.wpengine.com/free-bricks/