Aims

This course aims to provide a survey of the main psychiatric syndromes and symptoms of dementia and neurodegenerative disease, and the major forms of treatment for these conditions.

Outline Of Syllabus

Topics covered include;

•       The brain and neurodegenerative diseases
•       Alzheimer’s disease
•       Dementia with Lewy Bodies
•       Parkinson’s Disease and frontal dementia
•       Huntington’s Disease
•       Prion Diseases: from BSE to CJD
•       Motor neuron disease
•       Multi-Infarct Dementia
•       Different patterns of Dementia
•       Treatment options

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Formal lectures and informal classroom discussions and tests present a systematic perspective on the subject with reference to alternative perspectives. In the interactive lectures, film clips and videos are shown of patients with dementia and neurodegenerative diseases to illustrate topics covered in the more formal lectures. The implications of these illustrations are then discussed and debated by the class.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The unseen essay examination allows students to demonstrate their factual and systematic understanding of topics, credit being given for the introduction of extra relevant information or perspectives.

The formative assessment takes place in two seminars. The students are given 2 previously unseen exam questions (per seminar) from previous papers and asked to produce essays plans on how they would answer them (without reference to their notes). The lecturer then goes over the marking plan he used for these essays and shows the students what he was looking for in an exam essay. This gives them experience of preparing exams essays answers to four questions and the comparison of their answer to the marking scheme that will be used.