The PhD degree is a research-oriented doctoral degree. In the first two years, students take core courses in the Departments of Mental Health, Biostatistics, and Epidemiology, in research ethics, and attend weekly department seminars. Students must complete a written comprehensive exam (in January of their second year), a preliminary exam, two presentations and a final dissertation including presentation and defense. Throughout their time in the department, we encourage all doctoral students to participate in at least one research group of the major research programs in the department: Substance Use Epidemiology, Global Mental Health, Mental Health and Aging, Mental Health Services and Policy, Methods, Prevention Research, Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetic Epidemiology, Psychiatric Epidemiology, and Autism and Developmental Disabilities. Family, twin, and adoption studies show that genetic factors play an important role in the etiology of the major mental and behavioral health disturbances and responses to treatment for these disturbances. Faculty in the Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetic Epidemiology research area are engaged in research to identify the genetic factors and explain how they interact with the physical and social environment to increase (or decrease) the risk for these disturbances. The goal of this research is to establish better predictive models of who is at risk for illness and establish the foundation for developing more rational treatment and preventative strategies.
The faculty in this program collaborate extensively with investigators from around the school, including the Department of Epidemiology and the Department of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health, the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Institute of Genetic Medicine in the School of Medicine, and the Kennedy Krieger Institute. The departmental and affiliated faculty are involved in population and family based studies of a wide range of psychiatric disorders and related phenotypes including: Major Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Alzheimer's Disease, Schizophrenia, Autism, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Substance Abuse and Dependence, Suicide, and Stress-related cortisol response. The latest tools and techniques are utilized from genome-wide linkage, genome-wide association, next-generation sequencing, gene expression and epigenetic studies.
