Introduction

In this final part, we explore the relationship between anxiety and depression. The course will help you to consider some key issues around diagnosis, causes, and interventions for anxiety and depression, and to think critically about some of the more pressing contemporary questions and controversies. For example:

• Do anxiety and depression lie along a ‘continuum’ of human emotions?
• Do culture and societal views matter?
• Are anxiety and depression simply caused by the stresses and strains of daily living and my life’s events and traumas, and not by genes?
• How much of mental illness can the biology of the brain explain?
• Are anxiety and depression more common in women or in men?
• Can or should anxiety and depression be ‘cured’?
• Could psychedelics be used to treat anxiety and depression?

Focusing on anxiety and depression, you will consider key issues concerning diagnosis, causes, and interventions, exploring how these conditions relate to each other. You will also explore some of the more contemporary and controversial findings within the field.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• Understand anxiety and depression from biopsychosocial perspectives
• Discuss contemporary issues in mental health science related to anxiety and depression
• Recognize different lines of evidence and appreciate the uncertainty, ambiguity, and limits of current knowledge in the study of mental health science.