Stress and Trauma
Full course description
This course is designed to give students an in-depth overview of key concepts and controversies in current stress research, with an emphasis on the role that stress is thought to play in the aetiology, pathophysiology, and course of psychiatric disorders. The first half of the course will focus on biological and psychological mechanisms involved in (mal)adaptive responses to stressors. In the second half, we will apply this knowledge to better understand aspects of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): epidemiology, risk and protective factors, prevention, and evidence-based treatment options.
Throughout the course, attention will be paid to how current theories about stress and trauma can be translated into testable hypotheses and feasible research designs. In addition, the generalisability and clinical relevance of findings from experimental stress exposure paradigms and studies in animal models will be considered.
The final assessment for this course is a numerical grade between 0,0 and 10,0.
Course objectives
Students will be able to understand:
conceptualisation and measurement of stress, appraisal and coping processes, sympathetic-adrenal medullary system, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, stress neurobiology, experimental stress paradigms, long-term effects of prenatal stress and childhood adversity, gene-environment interactions, environmental sensitivity, epidemiology of trauma exposure, risk and protective factors, social support, resilience, diagnostic criteria, burnout, acute stress disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, cognitive mechanisms, biological mechanisms, prevention, clinical trials, treatment approaches (rationale and efficacy), barriers to translating research into clinical practice, ethical issues in stress research.
Students will be able to apply:
designing an experimental stress study, writing a study (experiment) proposal, giving a brief empirical presentation, teamwork during small group assignments.
- D.M.J. Hernaus