Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Sam Vaknin
Professor of Clinical Psychology
Keynote: Triggering Cascade, Trauma Imprinting, and Total Reactance
Time : 9:30am to 10:00am
Biography:
Sam Vaknin is a visiting Professor of Clinical Psychology at Southern Federal University, Senior Correspondent at New York Daily Sun, and Professor of Finance at Ciaps Past: Narcissus Publications and Healthcare Reform Committee, Ministry of Health, RO Macedonia.
Abstract:
Total reactance characterizes Psychopaths, Borderlines, trauma victims (PTSD and CPTSD), and people with mood disorders and impulse control issues. They escalate every conflict, however minor or imaginary, to the level of nuclear, apocalyptic, all-annihilating warfare and make disproportionate use of every weapon in their arsenal simultaneously.
Trauma imprints everything and everyone involved or present in the stressful event, however tangentially. Places, people, smells, sounds, circumstances, objects, dates, and categories of the above, all get "stamped" with the traumatic experience.
Aim & Objectives: To study the Triggering cascade" is when a seemingly minor trigger results in vastly disproportional trauma.
Material & Methods: Trauma imprints everything and everyone involved or present in the stressful event, however tangentially.
Results: Additionally, one of the primary hallmarks of trauma is the overall feeling in our brain and body of “too much, too fast.” Right now, if we take a moment to check in with ourselves, we can all feel the reverberation of how the pace of this crisis response shows up in our individual bodies. Since the individual and the collective are interconnected, the trauma hallmark of “too much, too fast” is also being magnified in the chaos and instability of the world around us.
Conclusion: These are all normal, biologically rooted responses to coping with trauma, and also strategies for surviving in the midst of ongoing, overwhelming experience with an unpredictable outcome. Unearthing archived trauma wounds, those that were previously known as well as those that are just emerging in our consciousness for the first time — while simultaneously being faced with a pandemic that prompts an immediate response — places a tremendous demand on a survivor’s whole being.
Keynote Forum
Perdikari Erietta
psychologist-psychotherapist
Keynote: The Experience and management of depression in the elderly in greece
Time : 10:00am to 10:30am
Biography:
Erietta Perdikari is a psychologist-psychotherapist at the Psychiatric Department of Skilitsio General Hospital in Chios, a graduate of Hellenic Open University, and specialized in geropsychology.
Abstract:
Depression is a painful reality for a large percentage of the elderly in Greece, especially in recent years after the financial crisis. Its onset seems to be related to physical illnesses, social isolation, low income, and stressful events. In addition, some psychological and social conditions associated with aging, such as retirement, loss of a partner, seem to play a decisive role.
Such changes are not easily manageable because the elderly will have to adjust their lives to new conditions and create a new program of activities. An important factor in dealing with depression is the way that older people experience and manage it.
Aim & Objectives: The main purpose of this study is to investigate in-depth the experience of the elderly with depression.
Material & Methods: In order to investigate the subject of the present research, the qualitative method with semi-structured interviews has selected.
Results: The main issues that emerged from the analysis of the interviews are: “change for the worse” (negative emotions, development of psychosomatic symptoms, isolation), “how I perceive depression” (fear of stigmatization, what lead me to depression, treatments), “how depression has affected my life” (my daily life has changed, my life, in general, has changed, my social relationships have changed), “depression management” (passive attitude towards depression, active attitude towards depression, non accepting depression)
Conclusion: Participants consider depression to be a negative condition characterized by psychosomatic symptoms such as headaches, stomach aches, sleep disorders, and negative thoughts. Depression has significantly affected their lives because they find it difficult to perform important tasks such as preparing food and cleaning their house. Also, most participants said that their social relationships have been negatively affected. One of the main reasons why they avoid social interactions and communication with others is the fear of stigmatization. That is, they are afraid that others will understand that they are depressed and call them crazy or problematic.
Keynote Forum
MD Anne-Frederique Naviaux
consultant Psychiatrist and Child Psychiatrist
Keynote: Emergencies and Interventions in an out of hours Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service based in a General Hospital
Biography:
Anne-Frederique Naviaux is a consultant Psychiatrist and Child Psychiatrist, who finished her Master in Psychiatry in 2004 (Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium). She worked in France as a ‘praticien hospitalier’ in Child Psychiatry and for the World Health Organization, before joining the research department in Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland) in 2011. She has been a lecturer in France (IFSI) since 2004 but has also joined the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland in 2012. She currently works for the Health Service Executive in Ireland as Head of Service in Summerhill Adult Mental Health Centre (Wexford) and as Clinical Lead for Liaison Psychiatry in Wexford General Hospital (WGH). Since 2016, she has been developing in collaboration with the Paediatric Team in WGH, an out of hours emergency service for young people with Mental Health Issues.
Abstract:
Having 25% of the total population aged under 18y old, Ireland struggles to provide appropriate Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS); this is directly connected to the lack of CAMHS consultants to lead these services. Accessing the existing CAMHS, especially in emergency, is particularly difficult as the waiting lists are ever growing, and therefore delaying the possibility of an early first appointment.
To palliate this, in Wexford and Waterford, we decided to be creative and to develop a new type of service: an out-of-hours Emergency Mental Health Service for young people, which provide assessments and interventions for under 18y old patients with Mental Health issues presenting in Emergency Department (ED) and/or hospitalised on a Ward. This new service functions with extremely limited resources (one consultant Psychiatrist and one Psychiatrist in training) and operates between 3 sites.
Aim & Objectives: To explain this global trend is to examine how the type of the youth mental health problems addressed in EDs has changed over time
Material & Methods: The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Department of the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital (CAPD-PSH) is a tertiary care referral center providing care to children and youths up to 18 years of age.
Results: A total of 675 interventions were delivered by the consultant responsible for that new Service over a period of 7 months (between February and August 2018). 59% of these interventions were made by phone while 41% required a face to face consultation.
Conclusion: Following this study, not only has this new service been maintained but it will developed and might also serve as a model for the other regions of Ireland which might want to develop a similar service.
Keynote Forum
Michael Weinberg
Senior lecturer
Keynote: Personality traits and trauma exposure: The relationship between personality traits and PTSD symptoms, stress, and negative affect following exposure to traumatic cues
Time : 11:00am to 11:30am
Biography:
Michael Weinberg is a senior lecturer at the School of Social Work, University of Haifa, and the head of the trauma social work specialization in the MA program. His research focuses on exploring the coping process with stress and trauma (e.g. terror attacks, traumatic events, war, etc.). Within the context of the trauma, he examined the survivor, the spouse, the general population, and traumatic bereavement. Within the context of other aspects of stress, he is involved in projects examining the coping of parents of a child with autism and stigma. Michael Weinberg has published over 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters.
Abstract:
Exposure to traumatic events can lead to PTSD and various types of emotional distress. Aside from the exposure itself, numerous factors are relevant for the development of emotional distress following a traumatic event. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the relationship between the six HEXACO personality traits and PTSD symptoms, stress, and negative affect following traumatic cues that can evoke emotional distress. Two hundred and forty-nine participants (N=249)completed demographic and personality-trait questionnaires. An hour after filling out those questionnaires, the participants were asked to watch a 3-minute video clip of a series of terror attacks. After watching the video clip, the participants filled out PTSD-symptom, perceived-stress, and negative-affect questionnaires.
Structural-equation-model (SEM) analyses showed that PTSD symptoms were positively associated with past trauma, negatively associated with honesty-humility, positively associated with emotionality, and negatively associated with extraversion. Stress was positively associated with emotionality, negatively associated with extraversion, and negatively associated with agreeableness. Negative affect was negatively associated with honesty-humility, positively associated with emotionality, negatively associated with extraversion, and negatively associated with agreeableness.
Aim & Objectives: Exposure to traumatic events can lead to PTSD and various types of emotional distress. The relationship between personality traits and PTSD symptoms, stress, and negative affect
Material & Methods: This study demonstrates the importance of HEXACO personality traits in coping with numerous aspects of emotional distress following trauma exposure.
Results: To examine the evolution of the types of youth mental health problems observed in an emergency unit in a child and adolescent psychiatric department over the last three decades.
Conclusion: In conclusion, using a comparison of data collected at four periods over the last three decades, we found that demographic and clinical changes exist in the types of youth mental health problems presenting to an emergency in a context of increasing demand. In particular, increasing proportions of emergency consultations are motivated by anxiety and depressive mood and are directly requested by the family.
Keynote Forum
Ghazanfari Firoozeh
psychologist
Keynote: Effectiveness of Psychotherapy based on Improving Quality of Life on the Symptoms of Grief and Depression of the Elderly Women Residents of Nursing Homes in Isfahan
Biography:
Ghazanfari Firoozeh from the Department of Psychology she is a psychologist her role is childhood trauma, early maladaptive schemas, emotional schemas, and experimental avoidance on depression: A structural equation modeling. Psychiatry Research.
Abstract:
Depression and grief are mostly manifested as comorbid disorders in elderly adults and are associated with negative consequences in elderly people’s physical and mental health in addition to poorer response to medicinal and psychological treatments. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of psychotherapy based on improving the quality of life (QoL) on the symptoms of grief and depression of the elderly women residents of nursing homes in Isfahan. This semi-experimental study was conducted on two groups (experimental group=14 and control group=15) using a pretest-posttest design. Six 90-minute sessions (once a week) of group therapy based on improving QoL were performed for the experimental group.
The questionnaires of grief experience and depression were completed by two groups in the pretest and posttest stages. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16 using MANOVA and ANOVA. Based on the results of MANCOVA and ANOVA, the experimental group's post-test scores of depression and grief decreased compared to the control group's scores and this therapy was effective in the terms of statistics. According to the results of this study, it can be said that this therapy has been effective in improving the symptoms of grief and depression among elderly women and can be efficient as a way to improve the QoL and treat the mental disorders in the elderly.
Aim & Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of psychotherapy based on improving quality of life (QoL) on the symptoms of grief and depression of the elderly women residents of nursing homesin isfahan.
Material & Methods: This semi-experimental study was conducted on two groups (experimental group=14 and control group=15) using a pretest-posttest design. Six 90-minute sessions (once a week) of group therapy based on improving QoL were performed for the experimental group. The questionnaires of grief experience and depression were completed by two groups in the pretest and posttest stages. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16 using MANOVA and ANOVA.
Results: Based on the results of MANCOVA and ANOVA, the experimental groupchr('39')s post-test scores of depression and grief decreased compared to the control groupchr('39')s scores and this therapy was effective in the terms of statistics.
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it can be said that this therapy has been effective in improving the symptoms of grief and depression among elderly women and can be efficient as a way to improve the QoL and treat the mental disorders in the elderly.
Keynote Forum
Arcady A. Putilov
Neurophysiology
Keynote: Geographic Variation in Gender Differences in Prevalence of Seasonal Depression: A Phenomenon of Eastern Woman
Biography:
Dr. Arcady Putilov is a leader of an independent research group experienced in the study of rhythmic processes and individual differences in the fields of neurophysiology, biochemistry, psychology, and psychiatry. He is a member of editorial boards of dozens of journals (e.g., Co-Editor of Biological Rhythm Research, Review Editor in Frontiers in Physiology, Consulting. Editor in Nature and Science of Sleep, Section Editor-in-Chief in Clock & Sleep, etc.). He is the first/corresponding author of the app. a hundred articles in peer-reviewed international journals, and he also writes for the general public about sleep, biological rhythms, mood disorders, psychology, and the history of science.
Abstract:
Since Seasonal Depressive Disorder (SAD) was “discovered” in the field of biological rhythm research, it was mainly studied and theoretically explained in the framework of several biological paradigms. Psychosocial and cultural aspects were not successfully included in theories of this condition and remained to be explored. Earlier investigations of SAD prevalence in the USA, Canada, and Europe suggested that women outnumber men in the symptomatic groups. However, those of later reports that were based on data from South and East Asia (e.g., such countries as Japan, China, and India) revealed that sex ratio might be close to 1:1. Prevalence of SAD was assessed in one south region (Turkmenia in Central Asia, 38º N) and in 4 Northern regions (West Siberia, 55º N, South Yakutia, 63-64º N, Chukotka, 64-66º N, and North Yakutia of the Asian part of Russia, 66-67º N).
Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ) was administered to groups of residents with a mean age of 37.5 – 44.4 years (N from 177 to 511). It was found that, in Turkmenia, the most often type was summer SAD (the worst well-being in summer, 13.9 %), whereas in the northern regions this was winter SAD (the worst well-being in winter, 12.5-16.8 %, independently on latitude). Unlike males in the nothern regions and similar to males from South and East Asia, native males from Turkmenia (but not non-native males) outnumbered females in the symptomatic groups. Such result points at influence of cultural factors on SAD prevalence.
Aim & Objectives: It was mainly studied and theoretically explained in framework of several biological paradigms.
Material & Methods: Seasonal Depressive Disorder (SAD) was “discovered” in the field of biological rhythm research, it was mainly studied and theoretically explained in the framework of several biological paradigms.
Results: shows participants’ characteristics according to their geographical area of residence. Women predominated in the Central and Northern areas. Participants living in the Southern area were older, physically more active, non-smokers, and showed a higher prevalence of cardiovascular diseases despite its high adherence to the Mediterranean diet.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that climate–depression relationship is more complex than previously thought and strongly different between men and women.
- Progressively Accelerated Cognitive Exertion: A Novel Non-Pharma Approach to Overcoming Depression
Session Introduction
Perdikari E
Hellenic Open University, Greece
Title: The experience and management of depression in the elderly in Greece
Biography:
Abstract:
Depression is a painful reality for a large percentage of elderly in Greece, especially in recent years after the financial crisis. Its onset seems to be related to physical illnesses, social isolation and stressful events, while an important factor in dealing with depression is the way in which the elderly experience and manage it. The purpose of this study is to investigate the experience of depression in older people with emphasis on how to manage it by themselves. Qualitative methodology was used with semi-structured interviews with elderly people and the method of thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The main issues that emerged from the analysis of the interviews are: “change for the worse” (negative emotions, development of psychosomatic symptoms, isolation), “how I perceive depression” (fear of stigmatization, what led me to depression, treatments), “how depression has affected my life” (my daily life is changed, my life is general is changed, my social relationships have changed), “depression management” (passive attitude towards depression, active attitude towards depression, non-accepting depression). The investigation of this issue is particularly important because the elderly in Greece constitute a very productive portion of the population and contribute greatly to society as a whole and the family bond. The usefulness of this research lies in the production of new knowledge for the depression of the elderly and the potential utilizations of its results in order to design therapeutic interventions, adapted to the specialized needs of the elderly in Greek society.
Biography:
John Kennedy, Neuroplastician John spent 25 years as a Sr. Level Process and Project Management consultant before the Marines contracted him in 2007 to develop the world’s first Targeted Neuroplasticity Training program to apply his unique methodologies to the brain to improve mental efficiency. After successfully helping Marines, Snipers, Special Operations forces, and their instructors, pilots he created several pilot programs to help people with brain trauma including children with learning disabilities, TBI, PTSD, depression, and MCI. To date, thousands of people have experienced CBT and 100% report significant improvements in performance in all areas of their lives...
Abstract:
This unique approach to improving cognitive function and mood regulation was developed at the request of the US Marines in 2007 initially as a program to improve intuition and decision making under stress.
The core modality is a series of non-digital exercises that optimize CNS and PNS connectivity to create robust stimulation critical for fast neuroplasticity changes in functional neuronal circuits. Gradually increasing the difficulty (progressively accelerated cognitive exertion) increases beneficial far effects and creates positive anticipation which releases dopamine and creates positive feelings of accomplishment and self-worth. This reverses the spiral of negative reinforcement that leads to deeper depression. When performed with another person (family member or caregiver) or in a group, positive socialization from a shared experience also boost positivity. Included will be a case study of a patient diagnosed with severe depression and BPD and his remarkable recovery.