Admission requirements
Successful completion of How To Write A Research Proposal is helpful.
The course will be given at first year Master level. An introductory seminar will review both level and course content at the start of the course.
Description
Period: 21 November 2022 - 16 December 2022
This advanced course combines clinical aspects with fundamental issues in neurobiology, pathogenesis and treatment of stress-related brain diseases. The course is a ‘joint venture’ of the departments of Psychiatry, Radiology and Molecular Cell Biology (section Neurophysiology).
Specific topics are:
Clinical phenotyping, symptoms and diagnosis of depression and anxiety.
Pharmacology of depression and anxiety: efficacy and new drug development.
Epidemiology, genetics and etiology of depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Comorbidity of stress-related syndromes with other CNS diseases (e.g. Duchenne, migraine, epilepsy, anorexia nervosa, post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome).
Pathogenesis, molecular mechanisms and novel drug targets.
Theoretical and practical experience in stress and depression research in the departments of psychiatry, radiology (section Neuroradiology), molecular cell biology (section neurophysiology) and endocrinology (expert meetings).
Assignments to explore dedicated topics in the form of critical evaluations, research proposals, knowledge dissemination and literature reviews.
The student will report the results in a clinical and preclinical research proposal and in two presentations.
Course objectives
Reproduce knowledge of the clinical presentation of different forms of psychiatric diseases
Reproduce knowledge on the treatment options of psychiatric diseases
Reproduce different animal models for depression
Explain the contribution of stress in the pathogenesis of depression
Explain the stress system
Explain the genetic contribution in the pathogenesis of depression
Describe the putative neuronal and molecular mechanisms underlying stress-related psychiatric diseases in your own words
Formulate a clinical research question and present a possible approach for addressing this in a research proposal
Formulate a preclinical research question and present a possible approach for addressing this in a research proposal
Present and defend the research proposal
Describe a scientific stress and depression related topic in laymen’s terms
Timetable
All course and group schedules are published on our LUMC scheduling website or on the LUMC scheduling app.
Mode of instruction
Interactive lectures, patient demonstrations, workshops, active participation in two symposiums and group assignments.
Assessment method
A twopart written research proposals; each contribute 25% to the final mark (weight: 0.5).
One oral presentation (based on part 1: clinical written proposal) contributing 15% to the final mark (weight: 0.15).
One Poster presentation (based on part 2: preclinical written proposal) contributing 15% to the final mark (weight: 0.15).
One brief oral presentation and one newspaper article (workshops) each contributing 10% to the final mark (weight: 0.2).
Reading list
Recommended but not mandatory: Why zebras don't get ulcers, by Robert Sapolsky.
Registration
Registration for FOS courses, H2W, Scientific Conduct, Course on Lab Animal Sciences and CRiP takes place in lottery rounds in the beginning of July. After the lottery rounds: if you want to register for a course you are kindly asked to contact the student administration at masterbms-courses@lumc.nl.