Major Depression in Populations: Public Health Approach

Public Mental Health is the application of the principles of medicine and social science to prevent the occurrence of mental and behavioral disorders and to promote mental health of the population. This course illustrates the principles of public health applied to depressive disorder, including principles of epidemiology, transcultural psychiatry, health services research, and prevention. It is predicted that by 2020 depressive disorder will be the most important cause of disease burden in the entire world! Every human being suffers from feeling depressed at some point or other, but only about one fifth of the population will experience an episode of depressive disorder over the course of their lives. This course illuminates the public health approach to disease, and the particular complexities of applying this approach to mental disorders, using depression as the exemplar

• Understand public health principles related to depression
• Analyze epidemiological applications in mental disorders
• Identify complexities in mental disorder interventions from a public health perspective
• Evaluate preventive strategies for mental health disorders
• Recognize the role of health services research in mental health promotion

• Basic computer and internet skills
• Ability to read course instructions in English and complete short exercises