Fourteen symposia were conducted on Monday.
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The symposium chaired by Dr Doanna Stewart discussed the HELPS study which talked about multidisciplinary approach involving educational strategies to promote self management of long COVID.
In the symposia by Dr Jennifer Payne and her team walked the participants through the neurochemistry of progesterone metabolism during pregnancy and postpartum and role of neuroactive steroids in treating postpartum depression and possibilities of the same in pre menstrual dysphoric disorder. While Digvijay Goel, Agata Golawska Moody, Aleksandra Antczak and Marta Pawlak discussed about their clinical experience on presentation, diagnosis and treatment of OCD. The symposia on care of women with childhood trauma during pregnancy highlighted that although pregnancy is a stressor, it is also the time to intervene to break multi generational trauma
The team from NIMH, USA discussed about the estradiol changes during mid life and the perimenopausal period and role of transdermal estradiol for depression and anxiety symptoms. The day care treatment teams of Erasmus medical center and Arkin Mental Health, the Netherlands shared insightful experiences of running day care services for women with severe mental illness and personality disorders. In the symposium on Cross-cultural conceptualization of postpartum psychosis in Malawi, India & the UK, the speakers discussed about how local terminology used was different but symptomatology was similar across settings.
Pathways to care were parallel in India & Malawi with almost 60% of families seeking alternative forms of care including faith healing before approaching clinicians.
Thanks to technology, we could listen to Dr. Bibilola Oladeji, even in her absence due to visa issues, and her keynote lecture on Adolescent perinatal depression introduced us to the concept of 'neighbourhood mothers'. This led to a lively discussion on similar interventions in other Latin American countries. The need for more research on grief of adolescent mothers following pregnancy loss was felt. The session concluded with some food for thought- to look beyond the diagnostic labels and look at the human aspect of loss and other difficult experiences that adolescent mothers go through.
Dr Ruby Castilla's keynote lecture on "Development of a collaborative network to support women’s mental health of Hispanic/Latino communities: WARMI (Woman in Quechua-Aymara)" was enriching and emphasized on the need for a supportive network strengthened by vulnerability, generosity and intentionality.
Throughout the day-2, there were several exciting workshops, ranging from psychopharmacology to assessment approaches in personality disorders. The oral presentations also generated very active exchange of ideas as many early career professionals shared their work.
