[Psychological assistance to medical students: 21 years of experience].

The purpose of this article is to report on the 21-year experience of the Group of Psychological Assistance to Students at the School of Medicine of the São Paulo University (GRAPAL). First, the authors briefly introduce historical aspects of the psychological assistance provided to medical students, followed by the organization of GRAPAL in 1983 and the beginning of activities in 1986. Major reasons for medical students to seek psychological assistance, obstacles found by the institution, the work team and students are presented.

What is behind a student's choice for becoming a doctor?

Purpose: To determine the reasons for choosing the medical profession by interviewing freshmen medical students from the Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo and investigating their socio-economic and psychological profiles, as well as to determine whether there are gender differences.

Method: One hundred and sixty three freshmen medical students answered a questionnaire regarding their socio-economical profile. Of those, 30 female and 30 male students underwent a face-to-face interview regarding the career choice, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF).

Volumetric evidence of a left laterality effect in epileptic psychosis.

We investigated anatomic alterations and lateralization effect in the mesial temporal lobe structures (amygdala and hippocampus) in epileptic psychosis MRI volumetric measurements. Patients with epileptic psychosis and normal controls were studied. Left hippocampus values were significantly smaller for patients (P<0.