Fellows work under the mentorship of faculty and clinical investigators learning the fundamentals of clinical psychobiologically-oriented research in patients with affective disorders. Fellows actively participate in ongoing research and initiate studies of their own. The clinical fellowship is closely allied with the UCSD training program in neuroscience, an internationally renowned graduate program . A joint didactic seminar series exists for the two training programs. Fellows in the second year and beyond may work full time on their own research projects.
Ample opportunity exists for work in specialized clinical and laboratory areas.
The program is organized to effect an optimum balance between theory and experience in evaluating and treating children and adolescents. The clinical experience is very carefully supervised and each Fellow has weekly supervision during the entire two years with clinical supervisors who represent a diversity of theoretical persuasions. This eclectic orientation is also reflected in the formal seminars which range from basic neuromolecular biology to clinical psychopharmacology to psychological theories of child development and child psychoanalysis. The program includes an organized research component and a required research project. The two-year program is coordinated in such a way as to provide the widest variety of educational experiences within a framework of longitudinal continuity.