PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHOLOGY

Research in Psychiatry and Psychology is done in five broad research fields: schizophrenia; physiology in psychiatry; clinical psychiatry and psychology; forensic psychiatry; and psychiatric service delivery. The research on the genetics of schizophrenia mentioned above has made up the bulk of neurosciences-related research in the department. In this field, the focus has been, i.a., on elucidating the genetic architecture of familial schizophrenia by combining linkage analysis with studies of fine-level chromosomal variation in families recruited from the Afrikaner population in South Africa. The field ‘physiology in psychiatry’ has included studies on EEG changes during patients’ acute experience of dissociative symptoms and studies on psychoneuroimmunology. The field of ‘clinical psychiatry and psychology’ has included numerous studies on the symptoms of various mental illnesses. Research on ‘forensic psychiatry’ has included studies on associations between psychiatric diagnoses and certain crimes. ‘Psychiatric service delivery’ refers, i.a., to studies that have monitored the services that are rendered to patients in Weskoppies Hospital.