Psychiatric Epidemiology

Full course description

The course provides an introduction to the methodologies and analytical strategies of epidemiology as applied to mental health outcomes. The principles and practice of various study types (cohort, case-control, RCT, ecological) will be taught, with emphasis on interpreting associations and possible causality thereof. Consideration will be given to such issues as confounding, bias, and moderation. Further topics to be covered include the use and interpretation of diagnostic studies, the basic principles of analysing dichotomous and time-to-event outcomes, genetic epidemiology, and the use of systematic reviews and meta-analysis for building cumulative knowledge.