Skip navigation, view page content

If A-Rod played the violin, would anyone care?

Posted: November 4, 2009

(0) Comments

  • photo: Mark Heayn photo: Mark Heayn
  • photo: wikimedia commons photo: wikimedia commons

Watching the Yankees, led by the resurgent Alex Rodriguez, close in on their 27th World Series Championship got me thinking about my patients.

I've never taken care of any professional baseball players, but I have seen a lot of musicians for performance anxiety, which manifests itself as a physiologic tremor. 

A tremor is a repetitive shaking or vibrating motion of a body part.  We all have a baseline tremor in our hands of about 10-12 Hz.  Normally, this tremor is invisible but many things can make the shakiness very noticeable: caffeine, nicotine, certain drugs, muscle fatigue and - most commonly - excitement, fear or stress. 

We've all experienced the shaky hands or quavering voice that goes along with being really nervous, and for the most part it's just a mild annoyance.  But think about being a violinist auditioning against 40 other people for the sole paying position in a major orchestra.  The beautiful, smooth tones you caressed from your instrument at home are suddenly replaced with the staccato warbling of a Hee Haw fiddler. 

Or how about the graduate student in Voice Performance, whose degree is based in part on how well she sings in a recital for faculty.  The pitch perfect notes that flowed so easily in the studio suddenly and uncontrollably catch in her throat like the jagged edge of a potato chip, leaving her sounding like a back-up singer for Billy Ray Cyrus.

So what does all of this have to do with the highest paid baseball player in the world?

Well, the mercurial A-Rod, like many of his colleagues in Major League Baseball, has admitted to (or at least been caught) using steroids.  In the minds of many sports fans, this use of performance enhancing drugs makes A-Rod a big, fat cheater.

Which makes me wonder if my patients are cheaters too?  I routinely prescribe them medications that very effectively blunt their anxiety and tremors and allow them to perform to their maximum potential in those situations where the psychological pressure (and its effect on their nervous system) normally doesn't.  In other words, I give them "performance enhancing drugs." 

But is a cellist taking a beta-blocker to keep from shaking uncontrollably during a concert the same thing as a pro baseball player juicing up with roids?  On the one hand, it seems unfair to say that treating a medical condition is cheating; after all, you wouldn't tell a diabetic shortstop that he couldn't take his insulin before a game or a pitcher with poor vision that he can't wear his glasses. 

But on the other hand, one could argue that dealing with the pressure of being in front of an audience is an integral part of performing, and that using a chemical substance to enhance your ability to do so is cheating.  After all, a lot of weekend duffers can sink a 12-foot putt on the practice green, but there's only one Tiger Woods.

So what do you think?  Is taking a medication for an anxiety-induced tremor simply a matter of leveling of the playing field for someone with a medical deficit; or is it giving an unfair edge to someone who can't handle the heat?

John Vaughn, MD (Student Health Services)

Comments

No comments yet. You can be the first!

Add a Comment