Clinical Neuroscience Research Training in Psychiatry

Yale University, New Haven CT

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (Provided by applicant): This training program is designed to meet the national goal of increasing the number of fully trained research psychiatrists conducting research in mental health. In order to be effective independent investigators, research psychiatrists must be fully trained in both clinical neuroscience and modern clinical research. The ever increasing complexity of the science and clinical research methods requires that they receive specialized training in order to take full advantage of the rapid advances occurring in the field. This program will utilize a curriculum designed to give the trainee mastery of the fundamentals of basic molecular and cellular neurobiology, neuropharmacology, neuroimaging, psychiatric genetics and the ethics and methods used in clinical research in psychiatry. At the core of the training program is a two-year clinical neuroscience research preceptorship with one or more of the 8 senior training faculty and 19 additional faculty members who have a proven productive research tract record and who are currently involved in intensive clinical neuroscience research in psychiatry. The rich training environment is supported by 9 separate nationally funded research programs within the Department of Psychiatry including: 1) The Clinical Research Center for the Study of Mental Illness, 2) A Program Project on the Neurobiology of Major Psychiatric Disorders, 3) A Schizophrenia Research Center, 4) A Depression Research Center, 5) The National Center for the Neurobiologic Study of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, 6) An Alcohol Research Center, 7) A Neuroimaging Program that includes SPECT, PET, MRI and Spectroscopy, 8) A Clinical Research Center for the study of Opiate and Cocaine Addiction, and 9) A National Center for the Study of Borderline Personality Disorder. Trainees will conduct their research studies in specialized inpatient and outpatient research facilities and clinics and the resources from other basic science programs within the Department and Medical School will also be utilized. For the past twenty-five years the Research Faculty in the Department have had an outstanding record of training nationally prominent researchers in psychiatry. The renewal of this application for stipend support for 4 trainees each year will allow this program to continue to contribute towards the national goal of increasing the number of fully trained research psychiatrists.