MMB8010 : The Biological Basis of Psychiatric Illness & Its Treatment
- Offered for Year: 2024/25
- Module Leader(s): Dr Sasha Gartside
- Co-Module Leader: Dr Tiago da Silva Costa
- Lecturer: Professor Hamish McAllister-Williams, Professor Richard McQuade, Dr David Cousins, Dr Abhishek Banerjee, Dr Peter Gallagher, Dr Stuart Watson, Dr Fiona LeBeau, Dr Jennifer Burgess
- Owning School: Biomedical, Nutritional and Sports Scien
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 1 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
The module aims are to:
• provide the students with an introduction to the nature of psychiatric illness, the various biological abnormalities hypothesized to underlie psychiatric illness, and the proposed mechanism of action of pharmacological treatments.
• introduce the students to some of the challenges of studying the biological basis of psychiatric illness and the methods used in patient populations, healthy volunteers and experimental animals.
• develop critical appraisal skills of students as applied to the published literature related to the biological basis of psychiatric illnesses
Outline Of Syllabus
The module consists primarily of lectures given by experts in the research areas covered. The module also includes the first four lectures/practicals in MMB8020 (not included in the syllabus below) which provide revision and background for all of the modules in the Neuroscience strand of the MRes.
The specialized content of the module begins with lectures introducing psychiatric illness and the major biological hypotheses to explain psychiatric illnesses. These are followed by focused topics (monoamines and mood disorders; HPA axis and mood disorders; glutamate & schizophrenia; cognition in psychiatric illness). For each topic there will be an exploration of the methodologies and approaches that scientists and clinicians use to develop and examine hypotheses about the biological underpinnings of psychiatric illnesses.
The module also includes three workshops designed to help students develop the skills for critical appraisal of scientific literature in the research area and to prepare for the assessments.
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 14 | 1:00 | 14:00 | Present in person (PIP) lecture sessions |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 22:00 | 22:00 | Completion of summative assessment 2 |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 10:00 | 10:00 | Completion of summative assessment 1 |
| Structured Guided Learning | Academic skills activities | 8 | 1:00 | 8:00 | Non-sync online: Weekly quiz on lecture materials plus additional reading (formative practice) |
| Guided Independent Study | Skills practice | 1 | 24:00 | 24:00 | Practice skills learnt in workshops |
| Structured Guided Learning | Structured research and reading activities | 1 | 26:00 | 26:00 | Preparation for workshops - reading set materials |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Workshops | 3 | 2:00 | 6:00 | Present in person (PIP); Students work in small groups to complete task & present to rest of cohort |
| Guided Independent Study | Reflective learning activity | 1 | 60:00 | 60:00 | Additional reading and reflective learning, participation in group online non-synchronous discussion |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop-in/surgery | 1 | 1:30 | 1:30 | Present in person (PIP) |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 1 | 28:00 | 28:00 | Revision of lecture materials |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Module talk | 1 | 0:30 | 0:30 | Present in person (PIP): introduction from Module Leader |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
This module will be a mixture of didactic and workshop teaching. In lectures students will learn about some of the major findings related to the biological basis of psychiatric illnesses and the approaches to research in this field. They will also learn how to evaluate and interpret current research reports, and they will learn how to integrate new results -- which are accumulating rapidly in this fast-moving field of neuroscience -- into basic knowledge frameworks. Analytical and critical appraisal skills will be explored and developed in a series of workshops focused around interpreting and critiquing published papers. Specific skills: preparing an abstract, considering the context of a piece of research and its contribution to the field. In addition to the formal teaching, the students will be expected to spend the remainder of the 200 student hours in self-directed learning following the guides identified in the lecture materials and workshops.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Written exercise | 1 | M | 30 | Abstract writing testing critical appraisal and summarizing skills: 250 words |
| Written exercise | 1 | M | 70 | Essay focused on methodological approaches: choice of 3 titles: 2000 words |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The assessment will have two components: a) an in-course abstract writing test to examine understanding and interpretation, and summarizing skills; b) an essay set at the end of the formal lectures, testing students' knowledge and understanding of particular approaches to research and how they have advanced our knowledge in the field of biological psychiatry.
Formative practice, in the form of a weekly MCQ Quiz on canvas, will test understanding of lecture material.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- MMB8010's Timetable