Welcome to the 20th WCP Virtual Congress Program Scheduling

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Courses

Filter - Live Sessions: Plenary / Presidential Session   |   WPA TV   |  Original Sessions  |  Panel Discussions  |  Live Lecture in Thai  |  Special Sessions  |  Invited Symposia  |  Interorganizational Symposia  |  COVID-19 Live Sessions 

Filter - Recorded Sessions:  Accepted Symposia  |  Free Communications Sessions  | Lectures in Thai  | Special Lectures  |  State of the Art Symposia  |  COVID-19 Recorded Sessions

215 Sessions

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Accepted Symposia

Accepted Symposium
Session Description
International networking and career advancement have become more feasible in the era of globalisation due to the advancement of information and communication technology and competitive price of transportation.There are local conferences, reduced registration fees and special funds in international conferences and courses for Asian Early Career Psychiatrists (ECP). Nevertheless, there are various challenges such as heavy clinical workloads, lessened academic time, English language proficiency and the affordability of attending international conferences and courses.
Accepted Symposium
Session Description
This symposium address three novel challenges in psychotherapy ethics. Freedom of the will shapes fundamentally how we look at ourselves – in everyday life and even more so in psychotherapy. Dr. Zürcher’s presentation considers the compatibilist philosophical framework for free will, defending it against competing theories and applying it to psychotherapeutic work. A compatibilist approach to free will fosters a patient’s autonomy. The consequence of this approach for psychotherapy is that therapists are justified ethically, in many cases, to ascribe responsibility to patient behavior and, within certain limits, to express blame for patient’s behavior. For Sadler’s presentation, he examines the role of evidence in psychotherapies and non-clinical counseling (NCC) practices, the latter being helping and healing practices that lie outside of traditional clinical/medical psychotherapy. He contrasts the concepts of evidence in the evidence-based practice movement, and contrasts those with concepts of evidence in NCC practices. Finding that both traditions suffer from errors of omission in not recognizing what one does not know, he argues for a stronger role in evaluating evidence and accountability in both traditions, as both traditions are bound by a duty to provide benefit to clients. For the concluding session, Trachsel considers novel ethical challenges posed by online psychotherapy. This technology enables greatly expanded access to psychotherapy. However, for both therapists and patients, online psychotherapy can have many potential benefits and risks. Related to those, different various problems and conflicts can arise which should be well-considered by practitioners.
Accepted Symposium
Session Description
Depressive disorders (DD) and alcohol use disorders (AUD) are common and are priority conditions identified in the WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme. They often co-occur, and this is associated with greater severity and worse prognosis than with either disorder alone. Socio-demographic variables and socio-economic status influence both risk and severity of AUD and DD. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of reducing inequality by promoting social, economic and political inclusion of all people, irrespective of socio-economic situation, it is important to understand the social determinants of DD and AUD, to facilitate provision of comprehensive assessment and treatment to all, regardless of their social status. This symposium focuses on mediating factors and preventive and treatment strategies for co-occurring AUD and DD at individual and population levels. Dr Tantirangsee will describe the characteristics of individuals affected by these two conditions and the role of socio-economic factors in mediating the relationship, based on general population surveys in Thailand. Dr Higuchi will focus on clinical pictures and treatment approaches, both in specialist and general settings, based on clinical studies in Japan. Dr. Jiang will review public policies and strategies to implement and scale up intervention programs in relation to the needs of people of different social backgrounds.
Accepted Symposium
Session Description
The World Psychiatric Association is an organisation which unites psychiatrists from all countries throughout the world for 70 years. We share the wish of better healthcare for our patients, and to improve the fate of the mentally ill worldwide. This idea had been shaped since 1950, while preparing the first World Congress of Psychiatry, by the founder of the WPA, Jean Delay. As a modern Frenchman, also strongly rooted in Basque culture, his career intertwined science, literature and arts at the highest level. His main activity as a professor of psychiatry in Paris revealed Jean Delay’s talents as a great organiser, as well as a profound lecturer and an excellent researcher. His works achieved the modern identity of psychiatry, fostered the best possible scientific research, and maintained a strong influence of humanities. (Pr Driss MOUSSAOUI, Morocco) As a member of the prestigious Académie Française, he was also a major French intellectual figure of his time. We owe to his legacy a modernized psychiatry through better scientific achievements, for example his discovery of neuroleptics with Pierre Deniker in 1952, or his thoughts on memory tracing the boundary of Neurology and Psychiatry. (Dr Marc MASSON, France) As he advocated to always maintain a balance between technique, expression and justice for our patients, Jean Delay can still light our way. He reminds us that history is still being built in present times, under our eyes, as we can witness when discoveries are being made. (Pr Raphael GAILLARD, France)
Accepted Symposium
Session Description
Psychiatrists around the world are dealing with evolving psycho-pathologies of the current generations of young adults and adolescents namely ‘Millennials’ and ‘Gen Z’. Various studies have associated different factors that may be contributing to their mental health problems such as the continuing advances in technology, culture, modern adaptations of family psychodynamics and environmental and climate change. Low self-esteem, depression, body shape obsession, fear to be ugly, social isolation, internet addiction are common in teenagers. Psychiatrists have to distinguish whether they are a physiological expression of the turmoil of adolescence or if they are symptoms of an illness with potentially severe consequences until they lead young people to opt for suicide as a solution to their predicament. The three speakers from different parts of the world will discuss what is the current mental health issues of young adults and adolescents in their respective countries for a better understanding of Millennials and the Gen Z. Common to all the speakers is psychotherapeutic proposal to address these problems.
Accepted Symposium
Session Description
In psychiatry, stigma can lead to negative discrimination, low self-esteem, psychological burden and ultimately interfere mental health care. Therefore, we proposed a review of our studies to summarize the available literature and researches on stigma related to psychiatric illnesses in Asia-pacific countries; Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand. We will discuss the current stigma situation and present an overview of anti-stigma activities in these countries At the 18th International Congress of the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists (PRCP)in 2018, we presented at symposium and published “Overview of Stigma against Psychiatric Illnesses and Advancements of Anti-Stigma Activities in Six Asian Societies” (Zhang, Z.; Sun, K.; Jatchavala, C.; Koh, J.; Chia, Y.; Bose, J.; Li, Z.; Tan, W.; Wang, S.; Chu, W.; Wang, J.; Tran, B.; Ho, R. Overview of Stigma against Psychiatric Illnesses and Advancements of Anti-Stigma Activities in Six Asian Societies. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 280.). Some changes were found following 2 years. For example, In China, some mental illnesses are characterized with violence, and are not completely curable. Many psychiatrists might offer a relative vague diagnostic label to the patients and secure greater acceptance for the illness from the public. In the WPA congress 2020, the Advancement of anti-stigma activities and stigma among psychiatric disorders in Asia-pacific countries will be presented, progressing from 2018.
Accepted Symposium
Session Description
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the delivery of healthcare worldwide. The use of telehealth has exploded as many regulatory barriers to its use have been temporarily lowered during the pandemic. Year 2020 seems to be the turning point for telepsychiatry (TP), especially the home-based one. Standardized expensive, stand-alone video equipment has been complemented by web-based video platforms. In many places, both professionals and patients used free video software, such as Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, etc. However, data security is the biggest obstacle to its permanent use, once the pandemic is over. Meanwhile, the technology enables affordable and easily accessible, qualified service at a distance in a familiar environment.
Accepted Symposium
Session Description
Different types of authorities and institutions regularly issue numerous guidelines on mental health strategies, evidence-based treatment options, best-recommended practices, etc. The well-known fact is that practicians perceive most of such recommendations as “good intentions” that hardly could be implemented into real life practice. Top-managers and directors of mental clinics are facing the challenge to balance between the reality of routine clinical practice, needs and opinions of patients, their relatives, physicians and stuff, recommended treatment goals and protocols, along with the task to achieve KPIs set by higher healthcare authorities. The problem of management in psychiatry is rarely discussed at the conferences, meanwhile this issue is a real key pillar that hold both theoretical models of how mental health care should be performed and practical experience of how it is performed. The symposium will focus on the topic of top management in psychiatry. Directors of mental clinics will share their management experience; cases from different countries will be presented.
Accepted Symposium
Session Description
Cultural adaptation of psychotherapies seeks compatibility and alignment with values and belief systems, cultural idioms of distress, health-seeking behaviors, and culture-specific understanding of disease processes and illness experiences. This symposium brings together academics and researchers from the Special Interest Group on Cultural Adaptation of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) of the WPA Psychotherapy Section, who will address how to culturally adapt CBT in non-Western countries, presenting a framework for adaptation to achieve better clinical outcomes. The adaptation framework includes adjustments in therapy techniques that incorporate family to better engage individual patients, providing a culturally consonant rationale for therapy, sensitivity to religious beliefs, and fluency with nuances of language and non-verbal communication. Presenters will share clinical experiences and research data of cultural adaptations of CBT in Arab countries (including Egypt, UAE, Bahrain) and Southeast Asia (Thailand), designed for patients with mood disorders, anxiety disorders and psychoses.
Accepted Symposium
Session Description
Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapies are criticized for excluding those who come from underserved social classes. The idea that psychoanalysis includes only the privileged is true to some extent, especially when patients pursue classical analysis in megalopolises, which requires frequent sessions and greater financial and time commitment. On the other hand, since the very beginning of psychoanalysis, Freud and other pioneers believed that wider social groups, including people living in poverty with severe mental disorders, could also benefit from psychoanalysis. This, however, requires cultural adaptation of psychoanalytic techniques to make it applicable to the needs and specific problems of diverse social groups. Because of the high prevalence of psychiatric disorders and inability of people to afford intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapies, it is of great relevance to find a practical way to apply psychoanalytic knowledge to diverse multicultural contexts and clinical settings. This symposium aims at elaborating ideas and sharing experiences on how to integrate and apply psychoanalytic knowledge to community mental health services and public health. Psychodynamic psychiatrists from Morocco, Iran and Indonesia will share their expertise and describe the relevance of thinking and formulating psychoanalytically while practicing collaboratively and creatively as general psychiatrists in high volume and underserved areas of the world. This symposium is sponsored by the Psychoanalysis in Psychiatry Section of the WPA.
Accepted Symposium
Session Description
Patterns and rates of suicide differ between nations, sub-populations and cultures, and over time. Broadly, age patterns and gender ratios of Western nations differ from those of Asian countries, but to varying extents. Lakshmi Vijayakumar will explore differences in suicide patterns between high income and low income nations, and whether (and why) the differences relate to economic, cultural, social and/or other factors. Studies have suggested that 30-80% (average 58%) of suicide deaths in low and middle income countries (LMIC) are attributable to psychiatric disorders, contrasting with 80-90% in high income countries. This could be a reflection of differences in suicide methods used, and the greater likelihood of LMIC suicides being impulsive. More data from surveillance systems are urgently needed to better understand self-harm patterns across different LMIC settings. John Snowdon will refer to recent decreases in late life suicide rates in various countries, and will raise questions concerning how age-related factors could account for differences and changes. We consider the accuracy of published suicide statistics and will emphasise a need to acknowledge the socio-cultural context of suicide. Greg Armstrong will comment on the fact that, although suicide was recently decriminalized in India, crime reporters continue to undertake simplistic and graphic coverage of local suicide events. He will describe research regarding the media’s reporting of suicide news and the perspectives and experiences of media professionals. He will discuss how policy makers in India could adapt international guidelines on responsible reporting of suicide by the media.
Accepted Symposium
Session Description
Bipolar disorder is a severe, recurring mental illness and pharmacotherapy plays a major role among treatment. Mood stabilizers and antipsychotics are frequently used in bipolar disorder, while there is a lack of consensus regarding the definition of polypharmacy, leading to difficulties in conducting comparative studies of polypharmacy across settings and countries. Research on Asian Prescription Pattern (REAP) is the largest and the longest lasting international collaborative research in psychiatry in Asia. In the year 2019, two surveys were carried by the same country groups, to study the prescription pattern on bipolar disorder (REAP-BD), and the use of mood stabilizers (REAP-MS) in various psychiatric disorders. In total, 2003 patients with bipolar disorder, and 1134 patients who were prescribed with mood stabilizers but not mood disorder were studied. In this symposium, three young psychiatrists from South Asian countries will report the results from the two studies.