This course focuses on the neuroscientific understanding of psychiatric mental health disorders, which includes current evidence in genetics, biochemistry, neuropsychiatry, and behavioral neurology. Students will learn the DSM-5 classification for mental disorders, including etiology, development and course, risk and prognostic factors, diagnostic criteria, differential diagnoses, and cultural considerations. Major categories of mental disorders examined in this course are: psychosis and schizophrenia, depression and other mood disorders, anxiety disorders, trauma and stressor-related disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and substance use disorders. Evidence-based treatment recommendations for psychiatric disorders will be addressed across the developmental lifespan and expanded within psychopharmacology and psychotherapeutic modalities courses. Socio-cultural and ethical implications of the psychiatric mental health diagnosis also will be discussed.
Prerequisites: GNUR 436 Psychiatric Mental Health Assessment Across the Lifespan.
Outcomes: At the successful completion of the course, students will be able to: Synthesize neuroscientific evidence for the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of children, adolescents, adults, and older adults with psychiatric mental health disorders; Explain psychiatric mental health diagnoses with an understanding of current brain and behavioral research which emphasizes neurotransmitters, neural circuitry and brain regions, psychiatric symptomology, human behavior, and neuroplasticity; Apply critical thinking, diagnostic reasoning, and clinical judgment to the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and evaluation of psychiatric mental health disorders across the lifespan; Implement the use of psychological tools and rating scales to strengthen diagnostic certainty, collect subjective and objective data, measure progress, and evaluate treatment outcomes; Examine the socio-cultural and ethical implications associated with the psychiatric mental health diagnosis.
Prerequisites: GNUR 436 Psychiatric Mental Health Assessment Across the Lifespan.
Outcomes: At the successful completion of the course, students will be able to: Synthesize neuroscientific evidence for the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of children, adolescents, adults, and older adults with psychiatric mental health disorders; Explain psychiatric mental health diagnoses with an understanding of current brain and behavioral research which emphasizes neurotransmitters, neural circuitry and brain regions, psychiatric symptomology, human behavior, and neuroplasticity; Apply critical thinking, diagnostic reasoning, and clinical judgment to the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and evaluation of psychiatric mental health disorders across the lifespan; Implement the use of psychological tools and rating scales to strengthen diagnostic certainty, collect subjective and objective data, measure progress, and evaluate treatment outcomes; Examine the socio-cultural and ethical implications associated with the psychiatric mental health diagnosis.