Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

R305: A comparative study of heart rate variability and salivary cortisol levels during euthymia, in bipolar affective disorder, recurrent major depressive disorder and healthy subjects

This option is flagged and requires special approval, See details below.

Department:
Psychiatry

Requires Special Approval:
Yes

Ethics Approval Outline
Ethics submitted to UWA HREO January 2012

Project Outline:
Associate Professor Bassett and Professor Hood have interests in the pathophysiology of mood disorders, with an emphasis upon bipolar affective disorder. Their current research is focussed upon heart rate variability and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis in patients suffering bipolar and recurrent depressive disorders. This is part of a broader interest in the regulation and distribution of energy production and utilization in bipolar disorders, from a cellular level (mitochondrial dysfunction) to frontolimbic dysregulation and changes in physiological stress responses. The links between pathophysiology and psychological disruptions will become a further area of interest over time. Associate Professor Bassett is co-editor and co-author of the textbook “A Primer of Clinical Psychiatry”, currently recommended to medical students by UWA. Professor Hood was WAMSS Clinical Tutor of the year for 2011 and has previously included medical students in research projects. They have both published in several areas of psychiatry and are eager to engage medical students in psychiatric research.

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