PSYC 448 - CONSULTATION PSYCHIATRY - NEUROSCIENCE

[152 Hours]

This fourth year elective is open to one or two medical students per four week block. Students participate in daily assessments and clinical rounds with the psychiatry consultation liaison team at the Interim LSU Hospital (ILH). This clinical training is enhanced by didactic sessions given by the departments of Psychiatry, Cell Biology and Anatomy, and Pharmacology. Clinically relevant basic science concepts are reviewed band applied to the cases typically seen on the psychiatry consultation service. Integrated knowledge between psychiatry and pharmacology is explored in seminars attended by faculty, students and house staff. Topics include difficulties in drug absorption, distribution, and bioavailability in psychiatric patients with medical disease or failing organs. Integrated knowledge between psychiatry and neuroscience is also explored in a series of seminars. Topics include the anatomy of key structures, neural pathways, and anatomical pharmacology relevant to psychiatric illness (for example, the disinhibition of personality following a frontal lobe injury). The clinical training and basic science knowledge are further integrated with weekly presentations of journal articles. These articles are chosen to illustrate the pharmacology or neuroanatomy that is relevant to clinical cases seen on the consult service during that week.