Epidemiology and Public Health

Psychiatric Epidemiology

The study of the causes (aetiology) of mental disorders in society, as well as the conceptualization and prevalence of mental illness, is the focus of psychiatric epidemiology. It is a subfield of the larger field of epidemiology. Its origins can be traced back to early twentieth-century sociological studies. While sociological exposures are still widely studied in psychiatric epidemiology, the field has since expanded to include the investigation of a wide range of environmental risk factors, such as major life events and genetic exposures. Neuroscientific techniques such as MRI are increasingly being used to investigate the mechanisms underlying how exposure to risk factors may impact psychological problems, as well as the neuroanatomical substrate underlying psychiatric disorders.