Preliminary Program

Wednesday, October 9th, 2024



12:00-13:00 Registrations
13:00-13:10 Welcome & Introduction
Elie Karam President of WPA Epidemiology and Public Health Section
 13:10-13:20 Opening Remarks by the President of Chulalongkorn University
13:20-13:30  Group Photo
13:30-14:30 Plenary Session 1
Chitlada Areesantichai PhD (Thailand): Future Directions and Opportunities
14:30-14:45 Break
14:45-16:45 Symposium 1: New Technologies and Mental Health

Chairpersons: Michael Ni & Marissa de Guzman

Marissa de Guzman: Framework for the Philippine National Survey for Mental Health and Well-being

Corina Benjet: Benefits and challenges of guided and self-guided internet-delivered treatment for anxiety and depression in Latin America

Ian Hickie: Using digital technologies to deliver “right care, first time, where you live”
16:45-18:00 Opening Reception

Thursday, October 10th, 2024



08:00-08:10 Welcome & Opening
08:10-09:10 Plenary Session 2
Sandro Galea MD, DrPH(USA): Towards a mental health epidemiology: Promise and pitfalls
09:10-11:10 Symposium 2: Urban and Rural Environments and Mental Health /Suicide

Chairperson: Corina Benjet

John Pamplin: The impact of social inequality on emerging racial inequities in urban US suicide and drug overdose deaths

Jitender Sareen: Medical assistance in dying in Canada: legal, moral and ethical challenges

Maosheng Ran: The long-term outcome of persons with schizophrenia in rural China

Daisuke Nishi: Urbanization and mental health in Japan
11:10-12:15 Lunch – Poster Presentations Day 1
12:15-14:15 Symposium 3: New Risk Factors and Mental Health

Chairpersons: Helen Herrman & Oye Gureje

Oye Gureje: TBA

Lukoye Atwoli: New phenotypes for psychiatric genomics: what the future holds

Jen Dykxhoorn: Outside in: new research on linking mental health to broad social, economic, political, and environmental factors

Robert Smith: Predicting physical health in people with severe mental illness

Chi-Shin Wu: Exploring Key Risk Factors for Suicide Among Taiwanese Older Adults
14:15-15:30 Oral Presentations Session
15:30-15:45 Break
15:45-17:45 Symposium 4: Insertion of Multiple Stressors and Comorbidity

Chairperson: Elie Karam

Thomas Schulze: Multiomics of major psychiatric phenotypes: addressing the complex interplay of biological susceptibility and clinical presentation

Yunyu Xiao: Harnessing Big Data and Causal Modeling: Unveiling Social Determinants in Mental Health and Suicide Prevention

Linda Cottler: Social Determinants of Poor Quality of Life and Poor Mental Health Assessed in the National US All of Us Cohort

AJ Adkins-Jackson: “My mind is playing tricks on me”: How structural racism impacts depressive symptoms and cognitive performance

Friday, October 11th, 2024



08:00-08:10 Welcome & Opening
08:10-09:10 Plenary Session 3
Elie Karam MD (Lebanon): Convergence in three major national traumatic events
 09:10-10:10 Plenary Session 4
Tansella Award Winner

Holly Erskine
, PhD: The prevalence of mental disorders, suicidal behaviours, and self-harm among adolescents in Kenya, Indonesia, and Vietnam: Methodology and key findings from the National Adolescent Mental Health Surveys (NAMHS)
 10:10-10:30 Break 
10:30-12:30 Symposium 5: Measuring Psychiatric Disorders: Innovative Approaches

Chairperson: Lukoye Atwoli

Michael Ni:
Assessment of Mental Health and Wellbeing: Approaches for Robust and Timely Measurements

Viviane Kovess:
Using a self-administered computerized questionnaire: the Dominic Interactive to compare parental attitudes and children mental health across cultures

Vicknasingam Balasingam Kasinather:
Role of Implementation Science in Substance Use Disorder and HIV Treatment

Katherine Keyes:
Limitations of using large biobanks for psychiatric genomic research: why sampling design matters
12:30-13:30 Lunch – Poster Presentations Day 2
13:30-15:30 Symposium 6: Training the Next Generation of Psychiatric Epidemiologists

Chairperson: Linda Cottler

Jim Anthony:
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Epidemiology: A Selective Overview

Girish Rao:
Learning Lab for Psychiatric Epidemiology: Making it work - the Indian experience

Mohan Isaac:
Current state of psychiatric epidemiology in Asia: the urgent need for a new generation of Asian psychiatric epidemiologists

Helen Herrman:
Research and training needs for transforming mental health globally
15:30-16:30 Plenary Session 5
Lukoye Atwoli MBS, MBChB, MMed Psych, PhD, IFAPA (Kenya): Linking the neighbourhood to the neurone: an African’s experience from trauma to Climate Action
16:30-17:30 WPA Section Membership Meeting
17:30-17:45 Closing Reception