INSTRUCTOR: WM J. PIZZI OFFICE: S-313 TELEPHONE: 312-794-2586
 

PREREQUISITES: PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
 

TEXTBOOKS: Lickey, M. E. & Gordon, B. (1991). MEDICINE & MENTAL ILLNESS. Freeman & Co.
 

Gottesman, Irving (1991). SCHIZOPHRENIA GENESIS: THE ORIGINS OF MADNESS. Freeman & Co.
 

Stahl, Stephen M. (1998). ESSENTIAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY. Cambridge University Press

COURSE FORMAT: This is an advanced undergraduate course that is designed to build on several 300 level survey courses such as those listed as prerequisites to the course. For most of you this will be the first advanced course you will experience and it will proceed differently from other courses. I will try to explain the most important differences between this level of course work and others. First, in an advanced undergraduate or graduate course the student moves in the direction of being a scholar colleague, which in turn requires that the student take on some of the responsibility for the learning process. What this means in our course is that you will be required to have read the material before coming to class. Reading here means more than reading all the words, it means reading, analyzing, and integrating the material and being ready to participate in a high level discussion. The value of this course is that you will be asked to explain your thinking process and the instructor will evaluate the formal processes such as logic, use of the existing data, as well as inappropriate procedures such as introduction of gratuitous assumptions. This should not be seen as threatening to you but as an instructional procedure to sharpen your skills, much like a debating club. You are encouraged to critique any and all statements made by the instructor. You may find it interesting to know that the experts in a field look forward to this type of course because their student/colleagues keep them from going stale. The "expert" is, perhaps, prone to hang on to a point of view when it is time to change; the student is likely to bring in the newest points of view but may not see the weakness in the data base. When these two views are discussed/debated both the instructor and the student come out with a better understanding of the topic. This is what we should attempt to do in this course, although, at a less intense level than that found in good graduate courses.
 

Since the readings will be so important to our structure the reading list will be handed out on a weekly basis. Usually, the readings will come from your textbooks and will be supplemented by materials from the scientific literature. Since our library is not a medical school research library, I will xerox the appropriate papers and hand them out with the reading list. You have the option of paying a $10.00 fee for this service or acquiring the papers on your own. Xeroxing will never cost more than 10 cents per page and any left over funds will be returned at the end of the course. The reading list will be handed out one week prior to the classes in which it will be discussed. The reading list handed out with this syllabus will be discussed in the second week of class. The first week of class will be devoted to a discussion of diagnostic methods and problems in psychiatry, and to a review of neuronal physiology. As you will see, these two topics will recur throughout the course.
 

You have already noted that one of your texts is devoted solely to Schizophrenia, while your other textbook devotes a good number of its pages to the same disorder. This is a result of the history of research in psychiatry. Schizophrenia has held center stage in psychiatry throughout the 20th century and the revolution in our thinking about psychiatric disorders as brain disorders has come from this work. We will emphasize Schizophrenia because of its value as a model for studying the physiological bases of mental disorders, not because it is the most important of the mental disorders. The three areas that will concern us in each disorder we study are the diagnostic criteria, the presence or absence of a genetic component, and the physiological mechanism which may explain the disorder and lead to a treatment. We will start by reviewing these areas of investigation in schizophrenia, along with a detailed look at the critical conceptual and methodological questions in the field. Once we have accomplished this we will be able to study subsequent disorders in a more rapid fashion.
 
 
 
 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS.
 

There will be several exams in the course and they may be in class essay exams or take-home exams. Your in-class discussion will account for 20% of your final grade. The largest portion of your grade will come from a paper which you will research and write. The area you will write on will be chosen by you, but the exact topic will be decided by the instructor. You may for instance choose the area of mania, but I may refine the topic to the switch mechanism between depression and a manic episode. This paper will account for 50% of your grade and you will not be able to receive a course grade higher than the paper grade. The paper must be well researched and well written. Since this class is usually made up of the best students in the department and has an enrollment between 6-10, I will be in a position to give you extra attention in both the research process and writing techniques.
 

A second project will be the delivery of a presentation or lecture to the class. This presentation will be on material from the textbook and will be limited in scope. Usually, the topic will be raised in the textbook and will require the student to read several of the original papers cited by the authors. The student will need to give a clear presentation of the issue and answer any questions from the class. One example might be a presentation of how neurotransmitters work through a second messenger system. A second example would be to present the data for or against the efficacy of a therapy. In this case the presenter would have to be ready to defend or critique the experimental methodology on both sides of the issue. This will be explained in greater detail in class and, in most cases, the extra materials will provided to the student.
 

SEPT. 1: PSYCHIATRY & DIAGNOSES.
 

SEPT. 8: THE NEURON: REVIEW.
 

SEPT. 15: SCHIZOPHRENIA. (OVERVIEW LECTURE)
 

SEPT. 22: SCHIZOPHRENIA: GENETICS.
 

SEPT. 29: SCHIZOPHRENIA: PHARMACOLOGICAL TREATMENT & BIOLOGICAL THEORY.
 

OCT. 6: BIPOLAR MOOD DISORDER (MANIA). (OVERVIEW LECTURE)
 

OCT. 13: DEPRESSION. (OVERVIEW LECTURE)
 

OCT. 20: DEPRESSION: ANIMAL MODELS AS PURSUED IN OUR LABORATORY.

OCT. 27: NEUROSCIENCE MEETING: NO CLASS
 

NOV. 3: ANXIETY DISORDERS AND THEIR TREATMENT.
 

NOV. 10: ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER/HYPERACTIVITY.

(OVERVIEW LECTURE)
 

NOV. 17: AUTISM AND PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS.
 

NOV. 24: ALZHEIMER'S DISORDER.
 

DEC. 1: EPILEPSY.
 

DEC. 8: SYNTHESIS.