Matthews says that while some doctors undermedicate their patients, she also had a primary-care physician who "gave me whatever I needed."

"I guess they feel bad that we're students, and we have all this stress [and they want to give you] whatever you need to feel better," she says.

Matthews says she believes over- or under-medication occurs because doctors are not familiar with their patients' medical histories and have not worked with them for a long enough period.

But UHS Director Dr. David S. Rosenthal '59 said in an interview on Wednesday that Harvard students might feel under-medicated because they are used to being on medication and their bodies have thus built up a tolerance to certain drugs.

"A lot of people come on drugs to Harvard," Rosenthal says. "They have a fever, they have antibiotics. They develop resistance to antibiotics."

Matthews says that she feels her UHS doctors "always go to extremes."

"Unless you build up a history with a patient, it's hard to know them well enough so you can make distinctions, and I think that's the big problem with UHS," she says. "Students don't go there on a regular basis, and when they go there, they might not get the doctor they've seen before, so I guess it's impossible to really get to know the patient."

Rosenthal says that a wide range of UHS services are available to students; often students just don't take advantage of them.

This year, UHS assigned a primary-care physician to each first-year and sent every first-year a letter informing him or her of this special patient-doctor partnership.

However, Carie Ullman Michael, assistant director of clinical operations administration for UHS, says that only a few students have responded to the mailing thus far.

Rosenthal also says that few students have made an effort to voice their complaints at open houses, sponsored by UHS, which solicit student feedback.

"In September, there was an open house for students to come to UHS to talk about any issues they might have," Rosenthal wrote in an e-mail message. "Last week, SHAC [Student Health Advisory Committee] sponsored an open meeting in Ticknor Lounge. I was present at both, and despite excellent publicity, a handful of students attended.

"I think there's a perception that we don't care and we're not listening," Rosenthal said in the interview. "But we do care."

Shara R. Kay '01 says that even when a doctor has a patient's medical history in front of him or her, that doesn't necessarily make the physician more responsive to the patient's needs.

Kay, who suffers from sinus problems, says that when she first went into UHS for treatment, the doctor prescribed cough medicine with codeine.