本課程的主要目的在簡介情緒障礙，瞭解其相關議題及對族群健康與公共衛生的影響，以及流行病學與研究方法之入門。以憂鬱症及躁鬱症兩大嚴重情感性疾患為主，經由課程講授、上課討論與閱讀文獻的方式，使得學生對於情緒障礙及主要疾病的背景、症狀、流行病學特徵、病因等議題有初步的瞭解，並且在探討憂鬱症與躁鬱症之危險因子時，對於一般流行病學、精神與遺傳流行病學研究中方法的應用有基本的認識。
課程大分為三部分：第一部份為情緒障礙及相關議題的介紹，包含診斷、臨床特性，共病狀況等。第二部份為一般研究方法介紹，包含流行病學調查與家族研究等，第三部份涵蓋特殊議題，包含評量篩檢、臨床處置、以及實驗性研究方法在情感性疾病中的應用。

The goals of this course are to introduce relevant issues, characteristics, and epidemiology of mood disorder, to understand the impacts on population and public health, and to provide basic methodological concepts in studying mood disorder. The course covers two severe mood disorders, including major depressive and bipolar disorders. Students will learn background, symptoms, epidemiological and clinical features, etiology and mechanisms of mood disorder through lectures, in-class discussion, and literature review. In addition, the course offers knowledge about research methods, mainly psychiatric and genetic epidemiology, in identifying risk factors for mood disorder.
There are three course sections: 1) introduction about mood disorder and related issues, such as diagnosis, epidemiological and clinical features, comorbidity; 2) introduction about research methodology, such as survey and family study; 3) special seminars, such as assessment, treatment, and experimental research.