Treating violence. Future physicians search for answers to a different kind of epidemic

When today's medical students look back at why they decided to become physicians, most say they thought about helping people who were battling diseases, not battling each other. Students going into emergency medicine and psychiatry may have considered the effects of gunshot wounds and terrorist bomb attacks. But the epidemic of violence is also running a more subtle course. Now all physicians, from ophthalmologists to orthopedic surgeons, are on call to watch for evidence of different kinds of abuse and neglect--child, elderly, mental, and physical. And many physicians are not prepared to recognize the signs of domestic violence, direct their patients to helpful resources, or protect themselves against violent attacks. The lack of instruction in these areas prompted the Texas Medical Association Medical Student Section (MSS) to adopt violence as its 1994-1995 social issue.