Integrated Training in Psychobiology and Psychopathology

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Understanding the relationship between psychopathology and basic psychological and biological processes is crucial to curing significant mental health problems. We propose a program training clinical psychologists in basic science related to psychopathology and basic scientists in the nature of psychopathology. Focusing on how neuroendocrinolqgy and cognition relate to the development and expression of psychopathology, 9 predoctoral fellows will receive a coordinated three year training program starting in their 3rd year of graduate study. Selected from a pool of over 50 potential candidates already enrolled in four participating graduate programs, the fellows will be a unique cohort of students interested in bridging basic and applied science to understand psychopathology. The 24 participating faculty come from the Department of Psychology of Emory College, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. The training program involves four graduate programs: Clinical Psychology, Cognition and Development, Neuroscience and Animal Behavior, and the Neuroscience Training Program of the Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. The faculty's expertise 'covers psychopathologies from autism to schizophrenia and provides a unique training environment focusing on both human and nonhuman primates, as well as other animal models. Trainees have a mentor and a co-mentor from different graduate programs, fostering collaboration and increasing training diversity. Trainees will have completed the basic course work required by their graduate programs prior to program entry allowing focus on the training program offered by this fellowship. Trainees participate in a two-semester psychopathology sequence taught by clinical and basic science faculty exploring specific psychopathologies and relevant animal models. The first semester offers a high-level introduction to human psychopathology, assessment, methodologies, and treatment. The second semester focuses on the development of, and neuroendocrine and cognitive influences on, five psychopathologies: anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, developmental disorders, and personality disorders with consideration of relevant animal models. Trainees will acquire first hand knowledge of the nature of the psychopathology in addition to relevant basic research background. In addition to this core sequence in psychopathology, trainees take two additional courses, one in neuroscience and one in behavioral/cognitive science, developing their basic science skills in areas relevant to psychopathology. This training program will not provide clinical training, instead develops clinical researchers who are comfortable with and trained in the psychobiological systems underlying psychopathology and basic researchers who are comfortable with and trained in human psychopathology. Clinical trainees will get the opportunity to delve more deeply into the basic science underlying psychopathology while basic science trainees will come to understand the relationship between basic science and human mental illness.