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: Sept 23 – Oct 18, 2014
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 and Human Genetics.
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 and anxiety. 
- Comorbidity of stress-related syndromes with other CNS diseases (e.g. migraine, 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 and Human Genetics (expert meetings). 
- Assignments to explore dedicated topics in the form of critical evaluations, research proposals and literature reviews. 
 The student will report the results in a research proposal and in an oral presentation.
This course will particularly work on:
Research competences:
 Defining a research question, writing a research proposal, integrate different biomedical disciplines.
Professional competences:
 Commitment, digesting other people’s opinions.
Course objectives
The student has a good understanding into:
- main issues and methodology in the study of depression and other stress system disorders. 
- proposed theories and current scientific questions and how to evaluate them critically. 
- the student can convey this knowledge and its discrepancies in views to the other students. 
- finally, students have to implement this knowledge into short reviews and in a research proposal which (s)he will also present orally. 
Mode of instruction
Interactive lectures, patient demonstrations, work groups, active participation in symposium.
Assessment method
Marking of individual morning and afternoon-summaries of the day; research proposal; and oral presentation.
