In cooperation with
World Psychiatric Association (WPA)
and its Section on Schizophrenia
ECSR News
European Conference on Schizophrenia Research on its road to success
Die European Conference on Schizophrenia Research, initiated by the Competence Network on Schizophrenia is currently on its road to success. More than 600 participants from about 50 countries came to Berlin to attend the 3rd ECSR in order to update their knowledge on recent findings in schizophrenia research and discuss issues relevant for their clinical practice. Sessions focusing on explicitly European topics like the harmonization of practice guidelines or certain aspects of schizophrenia research were also part of the scientific programme.
During the opening ceremony the congress president, Prof. Wolfgang Gaebel, announced the foundation of a new European Scientific Association on Schizophrenia and other Psychoses (ESAS) which amongst other tasks will be responsible for organizing future European Conferences on Schizophrenia Research. Requests for membership application forms can be addressed to him.
The organizers thank the speakers for their contribution, the delegates for their attendance, and look forward to meeting them again on the occasion of the 4th ECSR, scheduled for September 2013, from 26th until 28th.
Save the date of the 4th ECSR: 26. – 28. September 2013
ECSR-sessions on European issues
Right from the beginning, the European Conference on Schizophrenia Research was explicitly meant to strengthen the visibility of the European schizophrenia research community and enhance pan-European collaboration and networking and to address specific European issues relevant for clinical practice, like the harmonisation of treatment guidelines, and for service provision, like specialized mental health services for first-episode patients. Therefore the organisers would like to draw your attention to the following “European” sessions in this year’s the scientific programme.
Friday, 10.30 -12.00 a.m.
S16 EPA Position Statements concerning schizophrenia and beyond
Chairs: H.-J. Möller, Germany & M. De Hert, Belgium
Friday, 2.30 - 4.00 p.m.
W2 Past, current and future European Schizophrenia Research Projects
Chairs: W. Gaebel, Germany & S. Galderisi, Italy
Saturday, 8.30 -10.00 a.m.
S27 First-Episode Programmes: Concepts and proven evidence
Chairs: M. Birchwood, UK & S. Friis, Norway
Saturday, 10.30 -12.00 a.m.
W4 European Practice Guidelines: A need for harmonization?
Chairs: W. Gaebel, Germany & K. Wahlbeck, Finland
These European sessions are of course just a small share of this year’s ECSR-programme. It is certainly worthwhile to have a look on the attractive scientific programme anyway and to attend the ECSR.
ECSR-specials: To whom it may concern – workshops on very specific issues
The scientific committee has decided to include two workshops focusing on very specific topics. One is addressing researcher in order to enhance their chance to succeed in publishing research findings in peer reviewed journals with a high impact factor. The other one is primarily targeted to clinicians who are interested in a novel prescription decision system that provides evidence based psychopharmacological information in order to optimize drug choice for specific patient’s profiles.
Professor Sheilagh Hodgins’ workshop – held Friday, September 30 from 2.30 pm until 5.30 pm – will provide the participants with the skills necessary in the final phase of an research project when writing manuscripts for high ranking English publications occurs to be a great challenge, especially for researchers with another first language.
Mentally ill persons suffer not only from their primary disorder but also from co-morbidities and adverse drug reactions. Therefore making prescribing decisions well-informed and fast with respect to specific patient’s profiles is indispensable. Walter Broekema, a Dutch hospital pharmacist, has developed a wiki-based independent psychopharmacological prescribing decision making system that may help clinicians to identify the right drug for certain patients. His workshop – held Thursday, September 29 from 2.30 pm until 4.00 pm – will be an interactive session where first participants will learn about front and backside of MedicaWiki.eu and second where special topics will be discussed.
Since number of participants is strictly limited to not more than 18 for each workshop early registration is recommended. Please pre-register by sending an email to schizophrenia@cpo-hanser.de. For more information about these workshops please see the respective abstracts.
Each conference day will be highlighted by a Plenary Lecture
It’s an honor that distinguished colleagues - Assen Jablensky (Perth, Australia), Rajiv Tandon (Talahassee, USA) and Michael F. Green (Los Angeles, USA) - have agreed to give plenary lectures on current issues.
To mark the occasion of the anniversary of Bleuler’s “Schizophrenia”, Assen Jablensky will give a presentation on “A hundred years of schizophrenia: from Bleuler to DSM-V / ICD-11” and discuss his concept of the disorder in light of the revision of current classification systems (A. Jablensky, 2010).
Rajiv Tandon’s presentation on “Schizophrenia treatment and prevention - facts and visions”, will trace the evolution of various treatments for schizophrenia and summarize current knowledge about available pharmacological and psychosocial treatments . Based on the enhanced knowledge of the etiology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia Tandon will evaluate if there is an opportunity to develop prevention strategies and treatments (R. Tandon et al., 2010).
Michael Green will give an overview of “Social cognition in schizophrenia”, a field of growing interest as cognitive impairments both provide insights into the aetiopathophysiology of schizophrenia and function as critical mediators and moderators of functional outcome (M.F. Green et al., 2008).
ECSR 2011 – obviously a highly interesting forum for delegates not only from Europe
The European Conference on Schizophrenia Research was initiated in 2007 by the Competence Network on Schizophrenia based in Düsseldorf, Germany. The idea was to establish a European platform for scientific exchange focusing on schizophrenia in order to bring together the European schizophrenia research community and to enhance pan-European collaboration in this field and thus strengthen the European Research Area. Accordingly the majority of clinicians and researchers attending the ECSR 2011 comes from a variety of European countries. However current statistics show that the ECSR is also recognized as an attractive forum for knowledge transfer and for networking with colleagues by schizophrenia experts from beyond the borders of Europe. About 17 percent of the delegates who have registered until end of June will join the conference from other continents.
Partner events - Save the dates
The European Conference on Schizophrenia Research is cosponsored by the World Psychiatric Association. Thus the ECSR and the Competence Network on Schizophrenia also serve as promotional partner for congresses of our sponsoring partners. Accordingly we announce the upcoming WPA-International Congress to be held in Prague, October 2012 and recommend not only to visit the respective homepage www.wpaic2012.org but also the website of the WPA-IC in 2013 in Vienna www.wpaic2013.org.
Schizophrenia is a very complex disorder and even now, 100 years after it was first described, we know very little about its causes and origins. The available treatments often do not adequately meetthe heterogeneous needs of schizophrenia patients. In recent years, controversies about the aetiology of schizophrenia, the significance of the symptomatology, reliable dia gnosis and appropriate classification systems and, of course, optimal and personalized treatment have initiated much research in this field and created a vast amount of data.The development of new technologies has provided new insights into some of the pathogenetic pathways of the disorder.
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