This free advanced level course, Exploring anxiety, serves as an introduction to masters level study in neurosciences and mental health. Focusing on anxiety, you will consider key issues concerning diagnosis, causes and interventions. You will also learn how to evaluate news items, and to go behind the headlines and begin to explore some of the more contemporary and controversial findings within the field.
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- 1 Common misconceptions about mental ill health
- 1 Common misconceptions about mental ill health
- 1.1 Different ways of viewing mental distress
- The biomedical model
- The biopsychosocial model
- The concepts of ‘holism’ and ‘reductionism’
- Limitations and clinical relevance of the biopsychosocial model
- 2 Mental health research in the news
- 2 Mental health research in the news
- 2.1 The Science Media Centre: mental health, research and the media
- 2.2 Coverage of mental health and research in the media
- 2.3 The importance of establishing the provenance, objectivity and timeliness of information
- 3 Exploring anxiety part 1
- 3 Exploring anxiety part 1
- 3.1 The experience of anxiety
- 3.2 Key issues in understanding anxiety
- 3.3 Understanding diagnosis – key issues
- PTSD and OCD in DSM-5
- Criteria that define a ‘mental disorder’
- The ‘global burden’
- The Research Domain Criteria
- 3.4 Reflection
- 4 Exploring anxiety part 2
- 4 Exploring anxiety part 2
- 4.1 Symptoms, behaviours and negative thoughts
- 4.2 Diagnostic criteria for generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder
- 4.3 Aetiology of anxiety disorders and the basic neural circuitry involved in anxiety
- 4.4 Are women more likely to suffer from anxiety disorders than men?
- Examining the figures from the WHO ‘Global Burden of Disease 2010’ Study
- Going behind the headline news
- 4.5Â Is work good or bad for your mental health?
- Employment can be good for mental health
- Work can be a cause for stress, anxiety and depression
- 5 Exploring anxiety part 3
- 5 Exploring anxiety part 3
- 5.1 Are women more likely to suffer from an anxiety disorder than men? Revisiting the question
- 5.2 Is work good or bad for your mental health? Revisiting the question
- 5.3 Work, gender and mental health − examining issues further
- 5.4 The treatment and management of anxiety disorders – an overview
- 5.5 Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and exposure therapy
- How does CBT work? What does it involve?
- 5.6 Pharmacological therapies
- Conclusion
- References
- Further reading
- Acknowledgements
