Psychiatry

Catalog description

Introduction to Behavioral Health is offered in the first semester of the second year and is designed to provide a basic overview of psychiatry and psychology while preparing a primary care physician to recognize and manage psycho-social diagnoses. The goal of the course is to familiarize students with a diversity of nomenclature involved with psychiatric diagnoses and psychopharmacology. Students will practice the skill of conducting mental status examinations with standardized patients. Substance abuse, including opioid abuse, is a subcomponent of the Introduction to Behavioral Health course. The student is introduced to the complex issues relating to alcohol and drug abuse. The pharmacology of the major drugs of abuse is presented, followed by detailed considerations of the causes, manifestations, and treatment of alcoholism and various forms of drug dependence. The co- morbidity of substance abuse and other psychiatric disorders is presented.