THE LANCET CHILD & ADOLESCENT HEALTH – June issue

Involving fathers in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders

The Lancet edition on child and adolescent health presents five mental health topics in its June 2018 issue.

• New ESCAP member: Bosnia & Herzegovina

  The Bosnia and Herzegovina Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Association has been unanimously accepted as a new member of ESCAP. The ESCAP Board made the decision at the Istanbul General Assembly, May 11-12^th.
  As a small association, they have challenges to face in terms of determining the precise number of children and adolescents in Bosnia and Herzegovina in need of specialised mental health treatment and care, and establishing national specialised training, dissociated from adult psychiatry, that is compatible with the EUME guidelines. Read more.

• ESCAP 2019 Vienna now open for abstracts and registration

  
  The ESCAP 2019 Congress organizers have announced that the submission of abstracts, and the online registration of delegates is now open. The congress is going to be held under the responsibility of the Austrian ESCAP member, ÖGKJP. A seperate website has been rigged up for that purpose.

• Tweets from @ESCAPonline

• Next ESCAP congress reveals preliminary programme

  The first announcement for the ESCAP 2019 Vienna conference included the line-up of keynote lecturer: Dickon Bevington (UK), Anke Hinney (Germany), Otto Kernberg (USA), Michael Pluess (UK), Franz Resch (Germany), Hans Steiner (USA), and Lucia Valmaggia (UK). Read more about the congress programme.
  

• ECAP MAY 2018 ISSUE

  Measuring intelligence

  Dealing with the measuring of intelligence is a controversial issue for youth mental health professionals. And if it comes to unravelling the genetic factors involved in intelligence, things become even trickier, in spite the fact that for example IQ tests nowadays are a matter of routine. Maria Melchior and Johannes Hebebrand, authors of the current ECAP journal editorial, felt challenged to attack this issue, and did not hesitate to come up with some clear-cut recommendations.
  View all contents of the ECAP May issue.

• First Perinatal 'Total Health' Congress

  The First International Perinatal TOTAL Health Congress will be co-organized by the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) and twelve other Romanian and international organizations in June 2018 at Sinaia, in the Prahova mountains of Romania. This congress wants to define the importance of the first thousand days of life and their lifelong health consequences, with a focus on research, education and training, health systems and services, and health policies. It will highlight the advantages of collaboration and integration in achieving "TOTAL Health".
  Plenary speakers are Michael Marmot (UK), Amanda Howe (UK), Julie Boom (USA), Hany Aly (USA), Charles Nemeroff (USA) and Helen Hermann (Australia). Read more.

• April 2018 News

  IACAPAP reports

  From the IACAPAP April News: the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions reports: 

  • 'More than a textbook': update of IACAPAP's successful knowledge platform.
  • Programme news for the July 2018 IACAPAP conference in Prague.
  • The next IACAPAP online course (MOOC) will start from May 7th: save the date.
  • Collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO).
  • IACAPAP on social media.

  Read the IACAPAP April News.

• 2017 ESCAP CONGRESS

  Delegates' feedback to the Geneva conference

  Delegates at the 2017 ESCAP Congress in Geneva commented very positively to the event. Almost all (97%) of the respondents to the after-congress survey said to consider to visit the next congress in – 48% were already "quite sure" to attend the Vienna event in 2019. Apart from many compliments, the 2017 ESCAP audience also contributed a treasure of comments and ideas that will help ESCAP to match this excellent performance at the next congress. Critical remarks were aimed at the high number of parallel high quality talks, which made it hard to chose which session to attend.
  Read more about the survey outcomes.

• ALAN APTER INTERVIEW

  Prevention of suicidal behaviour in adolescents

  

  “The idea is to try and encourage adolescents and children to feel more free about asking for help”, says Dr Alan Apter of Schneider Children's Medical Center, Petach Tikva (Israel). Read the exclusive Alan Apter interview on ESCAP’s research pages, including abstracts and original presentations, backgrounds, and publications.

• Former ESCAP president

  Professor
  Walter Bettschart
  dies at age 90

  The Board of ESCAP is sad to report the passing of professor Walter Bettschart at the age of ninety. Professor Bettschart was a former president of ESCAP and organizer of the Lausanne congress in 1983. He published over fifty scientific papers and books, and contributed to a variety of issues in child and adolescent psychiatry, such as: epidemiological research, developmental disorders, social adaptation, child abuse and neglect, (early) adolescence, childhood dementias, behavioural disorders and many more (view publications).
  ESCAP expresses its sincere condolences to the family and friends of professor Bettschart.
  View obituary.

• HOEKSTRA AT ESCAP 2017

  Tourette syndrome: newest findings on treatment and pathophysiology

  

  At the ESCAP 2017 Congress in Geneva, Professor Pieter J. Hoekstra (Netherlands) has performed a state-of-the-art lecture, titled: Tourette syndrome: an update on newest findings on treatment and pathophysiology.
  Read the Pieter Hoekstra interview.

• Trilingual interview

  Growing up poor: a high-risk transition

  

  Inequality is related to the onset of mental health problems, confirms Maria Melchior, member of ERES, the prominent social epidemiology research team of the collaborating Paris universities. Melchior was the opening keynote lecturer at the ESCAP 2017 Congress about Social inequalities in children’s mental health. Read the interview in English, French or German and learn about her answers to the high risks of low socioeconomic status (SES). 

• Fonagy: ESCAP Expert Article on borderline personality disorder

  

  Professor Peter Fonagy wrote an ESCAP Expert Article on borderline personality disorder in adolescence. This "research review with implications for clinical practice" was published in the November issue of the ECAP Journal.
  View Peter Fonagy's 100+ slides presentation, read the interview or watch his comments on video.

• WACIT AT #ESCAP2017

  World Awareness for Children in Trauma

  World Awareness for Children in Trauma (WACIT) has finished its second phase to a fundraising campaign on six continents in six weeks. The 6x6 traveled Greece, Turkey, Indonesia, Australia, USA, Brazil, Kenya and Tanzania. Professor Panos Vostanis (University of Leicester, UK) visited charities to train staff and volunteers in helping children in trauma. Training workshops were combined with sports events with the charities and children living in slums, favelas, disadvantaged communities, or who are homeless. Read his report. Professor Vostanis has reported on the WACIT 6x6 as a state-of-the-art speaker at the ESCAP 2017 Congres.

• 'Uppskattadindag'

  SFBUP (Sweden) develops mood and sleep diary App

  

  The Swedish Association for Child and Adolescent psychiatry (SFBUP) has financed and developed a mood and sleep diary App, titled Uppskattadindag (appreciate your day), as an application for mobile phones and Windows 10 to make it easier for patients to record and keep track of their mental state and daily functioning over time.
  Read more.

• Mood problems: the person-centred approach

  

  Professor Patrick Luyten (Leuven, London), pleads for a more person-centred approach of mood problems in young people, a greater focus on developmental factors and underlying vulnerability, and less parent blaming. Luyten was a keynote speaker at the 2017 ESCAP Congress in Geneva. Read the interview.

• RESEARCH ROADMAP

  "High level priority" for youth mental health research

  
  The ROAMER consortium has published its important final recommendations on European mental health research. The end report (Roadmap) assigned the number one “high level priority” to “research into mental disorder prevention, mental health promotion and interventions in children, adolescents and young adults.” Read more.

• KEYNOTE AT ESCAP 2017

  "Double standard for access to mental health care"

  “Imagine if people with cancer or heart disease were told: ‘It’s not serious enough, come back later when it is worse’. We are talking about a massive double standard here between mental illness and somatic illness.”
  Professor Patrick McGorry (Melbourne, Australia) takes an activist point of view on the access of young people to mental health services. Specifically in their transition from youth to adulthood, adolescents with mental health problems often meet the care system at its weakest. McGorry has presented a keynote lecture at the ESCAP Congress in Geneva. Read the interview (English / français / Deutsch).

   

• KEYNOTE AT ESCAP 2017

  "Dazugehören": immediate help for refugee children

  Immediate help for refugee children who need it and research into understanding their needs. These are two of the current missions of professor Jörg Fegert (Ulm, Germany), renowned specialist in child abuse and traumatisation. ‘Dazugehören’ (Being part of it) was the title of his keynote lecture at the 2017 DGKJP Kongress (Ulm, Germany), and at the July 2017 ESCAP Congress (Geneva). Read the interview in English, French or German.

• NURSING AT ESCAP 2017

  Transition to adulthood and mental health problems: too hard to cope with

  

  Dr Eva Lindgren's most recent study shows that being a parent to a young adult with mental illness in transition to adulthood can be an unbearable burden. “Too hard to cope with.” Lindgren (Luleå University of Technology, Sweden) presented her findings from the nursing angle at the ESCAP 2017 Congress in Geneva. 
  Read the interview.

• KEYNOTE AT ESCAP 2017

  Charman: study on reducing autism "very promising"

  Professor Tony Charman (King’s College London) says he aims “to make differences between trajectories and try to divert children from a pathway where they would possibly go on to develop autism, to a more typical outcome”. As a keynote speaker at the ESCAP 2017 Congress, Charman has presented his “very promising” study on the effects of early intervention on reducing autism. Read the interview in English, French or German.

• KEYNOTE AT ESCAP 2017

  Focused screening for mental disorders

  Pre- and postnatal screening instruments are at every clinician's disposal. But does it make sense to apply these instruments for universal screening? What are the underlying aims? Are we able to provide follow-up treatments? Professor Johannes Hebebrand provided an overview and weighed the considerations. Read the interview on his keynote lecture at the ESCAP 2017 Congress in Geneva (Switzerland). This story is available in English, French and German.

• AEPEA AT ESCAP 2017

  Bernard Golse on joint therapies and interactive guidance

  The president of AEPEA (L’Association Européenne de Psychopathologie de l’Enfant et de l’Adolescent), professor Bernard Golse, has performed a state of the art lecture at the 2017 ESCAP Congress in Geneva. Read more.

  

• LARGE SAMPLE STUDY

  High prevalence of mental disorders in Austrian adolescents

  A large sample epidemiological study to assess the prevalence of mental disorders in Austrian adolescents between 10 and 18 years has now been published in ECAP, the official ESCAP journal. The Austrian and British investigators conclude that "DSM-5 mental health disorders are highly prevalent among Austrian adolescents" and recommend that "early access to effective interventions for these problems is needed to reduce burden due to mental health disorders." Read the article (open access) or download the pdf.

• KEYNOTE AT ESCAP 2017

  The long-term effects of bullying

  Bullying has underestimated long-term effects into adulthood on depression, anxiety disorder, increased self-harm, increased suicide, and psychotic symptoms.
  Professor Dieter Wolke (University of Warwick, UK) reveals the huge impact that bullying by peers and siblings can have on children's mental health. He has performed a keynote lecture at the ESCAP 2017 conference in Geneva. Read the interview in English, en français, auf Deutsch.