Established in 1964, the Department of Psychological Medicine's longstanding foundations are confirmation of the Dunedin School of Medicine's ongoing commitment to psychological medicine.
The Department is focussed on six primary research areas, as well as being actively involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching to medical students, psychiatric and general practice registrars, postgraduate students, and various higher education postgraduate training programmes.
Staff in the Department research a broad range of topics, including:
- mental disorders
- links between mental and physical health
- psychopharmacology
- old-age psychiatry
- chronic pain and other topics in health psychology
- childhood adversity
- sexual health and sexual harm
- suicide prevention
The Department also plays a key role in the delivery of an academic component to the RANZCP and SDHB psychiatry training programme, and is actively involved in the supervision of Master's and PhD level research degrees.