The history and philosophy section of this unit examines the conceptual foundations of cognitive neuroscience from ancient times to the enlightenment to the 20th Century, how concepts of brain, mind and self have changed over time and by culture. This understanding will give students the ability to critically assess modern issues of mental health in a cultural context. The ethics section of the unit focuses on areas of brain research and clinical practice that remain ethically problematic and attempts to grapple with this from legal perspective. Amongst the issues dealt with will be mental capacity for consent, definitions of personhood and death, and the ethics of healthcare delivery. The scope of these questions is enormous and the majority of cultural and legal standards have not kept up with the pace of scientific and philosophical understanding of these issues of brain and mind. This is capstone unit of study that will require students to develop over the semester an original piece of scholarship on one of the issues raised by the lectures. The student will first need to identify an area of interest and justify in a brief introductory submission the rationale for investigating it. This will receive academic feedback and serve as the basis for the final essay, which will require significant research and critique of the relevant literature.

This core unit of study will introduce the main concepts of neurobiology starting with neural cell structure and physiology, neurodevelopment and synaptic plasticity. The modularity of the brain and connective pathways will then be examined with a focus of the functional anatomy of sensory processing, the basal ganglia and the limbic system. Immunology and neuropathology will also be studied with insights into how genetics and interaction with glial cells underlie these processes. Examples will be given of how brain disorders emerge from disruption to these fundamental processes.

This unit of study provides psychiatry trainees with an opportunity to develop effective clinical skills including the psychiatric interview, mental state examination and biopsychosocial formulation. The relevance of diagnostic neuroimaging is explored as well as management of psychiatric emergencies, risk assessment and the use of mental health legislation. Students will aquire a deeper understanding of how genetic and environmental risk factors affect the developing individual to generate the clinical symptoms of psychiatric disorders. This unit will cover all aspects of psychotic and mood disorders including aetiology, phenomenology and epidemiology. Students learn to develop management plans for these disorders according to a biopsychosocial framework incorporating psychosocial care and recovery principles. The principles of neuropsychopharmacology as applied to these disorders are covered in depth.

This unit of study provides an introduction to two important aspects of brain and mind ageing science, neurodegenerative disorders and opportunities for neuroplasticity and human flourishing. Students will learn about the clinical presentation and pathophysiology of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, vascular dementia and frontotemporal dementia. Psychogeriatrics and late-life depression will also be covered, and counterbalanced with new insights about what determines successful ageing and how we can use lifestyle interventions to keep people's brains and minds fit and well throughout late life. This unit will use case studies to reinforce learning, focusing on common neuropsychological assessment methods and research methods. Students will also be introduced to the social and ethical aspects of brain and mind ageing.

This unit of study provides a comprehensive introduction to the research methods involved in identification and characterisation of genetic variants underlying neuropsychiatric disorders. The first part of the unit will focus on the statistical methods to quantify the contribution of genetic factors to disorders in the population. Heredity and epidemiology of neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders will be discussed. The course will then discuss concepts of genetic architecture and linkage and students will learn to use bioinformatics tools. Methods used to examine and control gene expression in animal models will also be explored. This is capstone unit of study that will require students to develop over the semester an original piece of scholarship on one of the issues raised by the lectures. Through the course students use bioinformatics tools to study gene regions inherited with a disorder of interest and validate candidate gene. The research report will be carried out in two parts over semester and will require significant research and critique of the relevant literature.

This unit is designed to provide students with an introduction to the fields of substance use and the neurobiology of addiction. It will provide a sound knowledge and understanding of substance use in Australia and the harms that result from use, and address harm minimisation. Students will examine prevalence and risk factors for the use of psychoactive substances, patterns and types of substances used, and evidence on what works to reduce substance use and the resulting harms. This will include legal substances including alcohol, tobacco and prescription medications, as well as the illicit drugs. Students will also have the opportunity to learn about different communications skills to assess an individual substance user and apply their learning through developing an appropriate intervention for a particular work context. Management strategies for intoxication, withdrawal and rehabilitation approaches will be examined, including pharmacology and psychological strategies such as motivational interviewing.

Doctors and researchers depend on the latest scientific literature published week by week in countless different journals, but not every study can be trusted. Scientific studies are fraught with complications that can threaten their reliability, or the extent to which their results can be applied very widely. This unit will help you develop the skills necessary to critically appraise the research literature and identify sources of bias and confounding. You will learn how cross-sectional studies, case-control studies, cohort studies and clinical trials are more or less vulnerable to these problems. Similarly, you will look at the basic design of laboratory research, and what are the different types of questions that can be asked from studies on humans, rats or brain tissue. All classes will be based on published examples of research literature and you will learn how to navigate different methods and data types. This unit will give you the confidence to read widely across the mental health field, and judge for yourself which findings can be relied upon to inform future research or medical practice.

This capstone unit examines the key constructs of leadership, leadership development and change management with specific reference to mental health reform in Australia. Students will gain an understanding of leadership, leadership development, their own leadership attributes and developmental needs.

Students will also gain an insight into the development of strategy, organizational level policy and governance for achieving change. These elements will provide the foundations for self-development as a leader and the development of service level change/reform initiatives. Under supervision, students are assessed on the application of theoretical constructs and models, and will produce a significant scholarly project of change management and implementation in their own work setting or context.

This unit provides an in-depth study of anxiety, trauma and personality disorders including epidemiology, aetiology, phenomenology and management. This unit follows on from BMRI5003 Clinical Psychiatry I, and provides the psychiatry trainee with an opportunity to further develop their clinical skills with an emphasis on psychosocial care , and working collaboratively with consumers and families in multidisciplinary and community settings. This unit also provides psychiatry trainees with foundational knowledge and skills in psychotherapeutic techniques including supportive psychotherapy, building a therapeutic alliance and cognitive behavioural therapy. Principles of recovery-oriented practice and trauma-informed care, psychiatric ethics, history of psychiatry, rural and indigenous mental health will be studied.

This unit of study focuses on the subspecialty of child and adolescent psychiatry. The key approach will be in developing the capacity to understand child and family psychopathology from the molecular level to the societal. This unit provides an understanding of child development from conception through adolescence, looking at key genetic and environmental factors that contribute to clinical disorder, particularly the role of the family environment. The different phases of brain development will be studied, from the formation of new connections in childhood to the pruning of connections in adolescence and changes to the frontal and temporal lobes. Major psychopathologies such as mood and anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) learning disorders and autism spectrum disorders will be examined. The effects of puberty and gene-environment interactions will be explored with respect to the development of emerging adolescent psychiatric disorders, such as early psychosis. Students will learn about psychological and pharmacological management of mental disorders in children and adolescents, as well as the importance of working with families, carers and wider systems including multidisciplinary teams, education and welfare sectors.

This unit of study provides Stage 2 psychiatry trainees and other select clinicians with an opportunity to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes in biopsychosociocultural approaches, Consultation-Liaison (C-L) Psychiatry and integrative medicine, by exploring psychiatry at the interface with medicine and society. The unit's approach will emphasise the interconnectedness of body, brain and mind in individuals and surrounding systems. What's different about C-L will be explored in this unit, grounded in an understanding of the normal and dysregulated responses to stress, trauma and medical illness, including pain, expanding Stage 1 concepts of formulation, multimodal and tailor-made management. Principles of containment, stigma and models of care in medical settings will be studied as will disorders of basic regulation: sleep, eating and sexual disorders. We will examine psychiatry in particular settings: the Perinatal period; Intellectual and Developmental Disability; Pain; Oncology; Spinal; Burns; Neuropsychiatry. This unit will also deepen knowledge of ECT and introduce the newer biological treatments such as TMS. This unit aims to enrich the trainee psychiatrist's approaches to working collaboratively with consumers, families, treatment teams and care systems in multidisciplinary hospital and community settings. Seminars will emphasise an enquiring approach, based on evidence and engagement with the background medical and general communities.

This core unit of study, aimed at Stage 2 Psychiatry Trainees, will foster the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to understand, evaluate and apply a wide range of evidence-based psychotherapeutic and psychosocial interventions, including integrated service delivery systems, for individuals with mental health disorders and their families. This unit will build on the psychosocial foundations and concepts of integrated formulation and care established in the first year courses to support trainees to understand the role of the major modalities of psychotherapy and psychosocial interventions which have been shown to significantly contribute to recovery and improved outcomes in mental health. The unit offers an overview of assessment and the historical context of the development of theories and evidence, moving to frameworks of human development across the life span, expanding applied knowledge of attachment and exploring theories of learning and personality. Participants will then examine a range of specific psychological interventions aimed at different aspects of individual and systemic functioning including psychodynamic approaches, DBT, structured brief therapies, more advanced applications of CBT and group, couples, family and systems of care interventions. Teaching methods will focus on research-enhanced and case-based learning with an integrative approach, supplemented by e-learning and audiovisual resources.

This practically- based elective unit of study aims to provide a capstone experience for those psychiatry trainees wishing to gain experience in empirical research (quantitative or qualitative). This unit is to be taken over 1 semester or may be extended over 2 semesters with 3.5 hours per week field placement expected per semester over 2 semesters, or 7 hours per week over 1 semester. Students will learn a variety of skills for acquisition, analysis and presentation of data particular to their field of interest and will write up their project as a draft research publication. Potential projects can be reviewed by students in the semester prior to commencement so that they can familiarize themselves with research conducted at the BMRI, including placements in clinical research groups and basic neuroscience laboratories, depending on student skills and supervisor availability. Alternatively students may consult their local training networks and propose a supervised project well prior to the commencement of the unit. Projects may contribute to the Scholarly Project for the RANZCP CBFP if approved by the RANZP Branch Training Committee. Acceptance to a given project will be selective, requiring departmental approval.

This unit introduces the concept of clinical epidemiology and provides students with core skills in clinical epidemiology at an introductory level. Topics covered include asking and answering clinical questions; basic and accessible literature searching techniques; study designs used in clinical epidemiological research; confounding and effect modification; sources of bias; interpretation of results including odds ratios, relative risks, confidence intervals and p values; applicability of results to individual patients; critical appraisal of clinical epidemiological research literature used to answer questions of therapy (RCTs and systematic reviews), harm, prognosis, diagnosis, screening and clinical guidelines; and translating research into practice.