Psychiatric Epidemiology

Course Description

Psychiatric Epidemiology reviews descriptive and analytic epidemiology for major mental disorders of childhood, adulthood, and late adult life. The course will also examine issues of classification and the nosology of psychiatric disorders as well as operational case definitions and the measurement techniques to enhance field surveys and risk factor research.

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.

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).

Module 1: Special Issues in Psychiatric Epidemiology

Lecture 1: Introduction, Nosology, and History (790 KB)

Lecture 2: Measurement of Psychopathology in Populations (1,295 KB)

Module 2: Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Lecture 3: Epidemiology of Anxiety Disorders (573 KB)

Lecture 4: Epidemiology of Stress Disorders (8.8 MB)

Lecture 5: Epidemiology of Mood Disorders I: Diagnosis, Descriptive Epidemiology, and Natural History (664 KB)

Lecture 6: Epidemiology of Mood Disorders II: Analytic Epidemiology and the Search for Etiological Clues (359 KB)

Lecture 7: Somatoform Epidemics as Emergent Collective Behavior (3,547 KB)

Module 3: Disorders Over the Course of Life

Lecture 8: Epidemiology of Disorders in Children (3.31 MB)

Lecture 9: Epidemiology of Dementia (2.47 MB)

Module 4: Psychosis

Lecture 10: Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders: Diagnosis, Descriptive Epidemiology, and Natural History (337 KB)

Lecture 11: Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders II: Analytic Epidemiology and the Search for Etiologic Clues (995 KB)

William Eaton, Psychiatric Epidemiology. JHSPH OpenCouseWare, http://ocw.jhsph.edu. Creative Commons BY-NC-SA