Psychiatric Epidemiology

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, the student will be able to do the following:

1. Define the various elements of the field of psychiatric epidemiology.
2. Define methodological and conceptual issues that are especially important for psychiatric epidemiology as distinct from epidemiology.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of research findings in the descriptive and analytic epidemiology of the major mental disorders.

Prerequisites

To make the most of these course materials, you will need to have taken a prior (or concurrent) course in epidemiology/biostatistics.

Readings

You can buy the textbook, Textbook in Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2nd ed. (2002), by Tsuang, M.T., and Tohen, M., from an online bookseller such as Amazon or through the Matthews Johns Hopkins Medical Book Center. Matthews Johns Hopkins Medical Book Center 1830 East Monument Street Baltimore, MD 21205, U.S.A. 410-955-3931 800-266-5725 410-955-0576 (fax) http://www.cbamatthews.com/jhmedbook/

Intended Audience

Psychiatric Epidemiology is designed for students, epidemiologists, public health professionals, and researchers interested in mental health and mental disorders (as studied from the public health approach). The course builds upon knowledge of the principles and methods of epidemiology, as might be obtained in an introductory course (for example, Epidemiology 601 at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, or the equivalent), or found in an introductory textbook in epidemiology, such as Lilienfeld and Stolley, Foundations of Epidemiology, or Gordis, Epidemiology).