Proposed by the EPA Section on Neuroimaging and Epidemiology and Social Psychiatry -Refining our understanding of developmental trajectories of mental disorders will allow us to identify early those patients most likely to develop persistence impairment in mental health as well as those patients which will benefit most from treatment. Because of the limited viability of treating all cases, it is particularly important to find out individual determinants predisposing to worst outcome or to a better response to treatment. The key role of social and environmental risk factors, within a gene-environment interplay framework, in precipitating and maintaining specific trajectories in mental disorders will be pointed out in different representative samples. In the same way, alterations in neurobiology and neuroimaging biomarkers which have been associated to developmental patterns leading to different mental health outcome will be critically revised in the light of recent evidence-based results.

Proposed by the EPA Section on Mental Health and Intellectual Disability -The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is a taxonomy of health and health-related domains. It provides a common language and framework for describing the level of functioning of a person within their unique environment. Furthermore, it helps to describe health problems of a person in line with the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). ICF aims to provide a patient-centred approach to the assessment and management of people with chronic health conditions, mental disorders and intellectual disabilities (ID) by defining individual therapeutic goals and monitoring functional outcomes. The ICF also plays an important role in psychiatric rehabilitation, describing health problems due to mental illnesses and neurodevelopmental disorders. ICF facilitates a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach to assess an individual’s level of functioning and care. Use of a standardised classification system to assess and document biopsychosocial function helps to further support provision of high-quality individualised health and social care. Furthermore, ICF provides a standardised assessment instrument to determine individual functional needs for the care, rehabilitation and societal integration of individuals with disabilities which is a statutory requirement in many European countries. For example, in Germany, the revision of the Federal Participation Act (BTHG) requires the use of ICF as a standardised assessment instrument for determining individual functional needs of individuals with ID. Main objective of the workshop is to introduce the ICF and discuss its advantages and limitations in clinical practice, research, psychiatric treatment and care of individuals with ID and mental health problems.

Proposed by the EPA Section on Psychotherapy -This symposium will present current knowledge, development and clinical experiences on internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) developed in various settings and countries. Presentations include a description of the journey towards national implementation of ICBT and its outcomes in Sweden (MK), of individually tailored ICBT with different modes of delivery and different degrees of therapist support. Moreover, a presentation by VK include Adaptive Treatment Strategies, where a wide range of data before and during treatment are processed by an AI-driven clinical decision support tool guiding the adaption of therapist-guided ICBT at the individual level. Another presentation (KM) will describe the implementation of a national ICBT clinic in Denmark, from the first initial steps through to becoming a national service. Current evidence of effectiveness and implementation efforts conducted at the clinic. JB will report on a pilot study comparing online versus face-to-face transdiagnostic therapy in Arabic-speaking refugees. She will describe the different aspects of tailoring treatment contents in these two settings and discuss potential advantages of a tailored approach for the specific patient population.

Proposed by the EPA section on Women, Gender and Mental Health - Gender can significantly impact on the course of infection during a pandemic, but also it’s longterm sequelae. In the case of COVID-19, current worldwide statistics show more men than women dying of acute infection, while women are projected to suffer more than men from the health, economic and social consequences of the pandemic. Up to date research findings will be presented by the first speaker. Several studies to date have reported an increase in common mental health problems during the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic in all population groups with a more pronounced rise in women. Longer-term effects on mental health in people who have suffered from Covid-19 are as yet unknown. The second speaker will focus on the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder in this group, reviewing up-to-date literature and presenting data from her research group on men and women who were treated as inpatients or at home. The third speaker will discuss evidence that domestic violence and related deaths of women increased during the Covid-19 lockdown periods. The barriers that social restrictions create towards identifying and supporting victims will be discussed and recommendations given to overcome them. Particularly difficult challenges are also encountered during a pandemic by mental health services which care for women with severe mental illness who are pregnant or have recently given birth. The 4th and 5th speaker will discuss which strategies that were rapidly adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic to meet these challenges in the inpatient, community and liaison setting, were successful.

Proposed by the EPA section on Neuroimaging -One of the major limitations of current therapeutic management of psychoses is the lack of predictive, personalised medicine tools that could inform clinicians’ as choice of treatment for individual patients, aiming to improve functional outcomes while preventing adverse metabolic side effects (e.g., weight gain, metabolic syndrome, diabetes). In current clinical practice, poor efficacy or adverse side effects of treatments can present months after commencement of treatment. Even if therapy is adjusted, it might already be too late for the patient to fully recover from such comorbidity. Therefore, prompt identification of a patient’s risk profile is essential for selecting an optimal preventative therapeutic strategy. In a personalised medicine approach to disease treatment and prevention of comorbidities, a patient would first undergo a comprehensive screening by a range of diagnostic tools, which would predict the patient’s mental, functional and somatic outcomes given various lines of treatment, and thus help identify the optimal treatment strategy. Recent research using molecular profiling approaches (such as metabolomics) and neuroimaging suggests that such prediction of patient outcomes, even in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis, may be feasible. The aim of this Symposium is to cover recent advances in the domain of outcome prediction, with specific focus on use of high-dimensional and multi-modal data such as from ‘omics’ and neuroimaging.

Proposed by the EPA Section on Neuroimaging -Converging evidence suggests that patients with major psychoses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression suffer from deficits in brain anatomy and neurocognitive functioning. Also, enhancing neuroprotective mechanisms and anti-inflammation mediators has recently been shown to be beneficial in these disorders. In this context we will present findings from proof of concept studies with aspirin and N-acetyl aspartate in the treatment of depression in bipolar disorder patients. The potential neuroprotective role of long-term antipsychotic therapy on brain anatomy and myelination in psychotic patients will also be debated. Moreover, we will show distinct and shared contributions of diagnosis and symptoms to neurocognition in severe mental illness in the Paisa population in Colombia. In particular, Bipolar-I and schizophrenia displayed nearly identical impairments in accuracy and speed, across cognitive domains, whereas bipolar-II and major depressive disorder performed similarly to controls, with subtle deficits in executive and social cognition. Finally, we will describe the impact of specific hippocampal subfields on negative symptoms and verbal learning in first-episode and drug-naïve schizophrenia patients. This symposium will be extremely innovative, trying to disentangle the complex inter-relationships between treatment, neuroanatomy, psychopathology and cognition in major psychoses, with the long-term goal of improving response in this patient group along with their quality of life. Finally, the data presented in this symposium we will also be crucial for testing novel interventions in this important area of drug development for the treatment of schizophrenia bipolar disorders, and major depression.