Psychiatric and Mental Health Epidemiology

This course offers an introduction to the epidemiology of mental health and mental illness. This course takes an explicit epidemiologic perspective, focusing on the study of the burden and determinants of mental illness. It reviews the extant literature on the epidemiology of specific disorders and evaluates studies that investigate risk factors for mental illness. We will consider methodological challenges involved in the study of mental health and illness such as limitations to diagnostic techniques and screening instruments and issues surrounding comorbidity. The course will also address the social consequences of mental illness, and consider how we may apply epidemiologic methods to promoting psychological wellbeing in the general population.

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