Dr. Afzal Javed (WPA president)
MBBS, MCPS, D.PSYCH (LONDON), BOARD CERT.PSYCH (UK),
F.R.C.Psych. (UK), M.PHIL (Edinburgh), FRCP (Ireland)
Lecture: WPA Action Plan 2020-23: An update
Dr. Afzal Javed is a Consultant Psychiatrist & Honorary Professor, Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham & Honorary Associate Clinical Professor at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick UK. He is also chairman of Pakistan Psychiatric Research Centre & a Board member of Fountain House Lahore.
He graduated from King Edward Medical College Lahore, Pakistan and received higher specialised training in Psychiatry in Pakistan & UK. He is a fellow of Royal College of Psychiatrist and has also been awarded with Fellowships of Royal Colleges of Physician of Edinburgh & Ireland.
He has served the Royal College of Psychiatrists UK as Deputy & Associate Registrar & Chairman of West Midlands Division of the College.
He was elected to the Honorary Fellowship of the College in 2022. This is the highest award of membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrist.
His role in international psychiatry is highlighted by his current position at World Psychiatric Association (WPA) as President from October 2020 to October 2023.
He has also been the Past Presidents of Asian Federation of Psychiatrists Associations (AFPA) from 2017-19 & World Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation (WAPR) from 2012-15.
His areas of special interest are Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Psychiatric Research. His academic skills have been invaluable when publishing more than 175 scientific papers and being author of six books/monographs on different topics of psychiatry.
He recently received one of the highest Civil Award (Sitar -I Imtiaz) by Government of Pakistan.
Prof. Kostas Fountoulakis
WPA Zonal Representative in South Europe
Professor of Psychiatry at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and director of the 3rd Department of Psychiatry at AHEPA University Hospital, in Thessaloniki, Greece
National Representative for Mental Health in the World Health Organization
Vice-President of the Hellenic Psychiatric Association.
Lecture – Mental Health during the COVID-19 pandemic: results of the COMET studies
Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and director of the 3rd Department of Psychiatry at AHEPA University Hospital, in Thessaloniki, Greece
He is currently, zonal 8 representative (South Europe) in the Board of the World Psychiatric Association, National Representative for Mental Health in the World Health Organization and Vice-President of the Hellenic Psychiatric Association. He chairs the Mental Health Section of the Institute of Scientific Research of the Greek Medical Association. For the years 2020-1 he served as director of Cochrane Greece
General background
Dr. Fountoulakis received his medical degree (1989), performed his residency in psychiatry (1998), and earned his doctorate in psychiatry (1999) at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He received a 3-year fellowship in psychosomatic medicine and a 1-year postdoctoral fellowship for research from the State Scholarships Foundation of Greece. Until 2003 he served as a medical officer in the Greek Armed forces retired with the rank of major. In 2005, Dr. Fountoulakis was a Research Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry, Division of Neuropsychiatry, at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.
Research and teaching topics
Dr. Fountoulakis’ areas of clinical and research interest are reflected in the topics that he teaches: general psychiatry, biological psychiatry, psychopharmacology, mood disorders, schizophrenia and personality disorders. He has coauthored more than 500 papers and more than 300 of them are published in international journals such as the LANCET, BMJ, Am J Psychiatry, British Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, Journal of Affective Disorders, Schizophrenia Research, Psychiatry Research, Bipolar Disorders, and the Annals of General Psychiatry among others, with over. 15,000 citations and h=64 (Publish or Perish). During the years 2016-8 he was ranked by expertscape.com within the top 25 world experts concerning Bipolar disorder (0.068%) and among the top 50 concerning suicidality (0.097%). In 2022 he was ranked in the top 0.31% concerning year and in the top 0.56% concerning whole career among all scientists of all scientific fields according to the Stanford ranking.
Books:
He authored or co-authored a number of chapters in books including the Mood disorders chapter for the Wiki project of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA). He has authored the book ‘Bipolar disorders: An Evidence-Based Guide to Manic Depression’ (Springer-Verlag 2015), the book ‘Psychiatry: From its historical and Philosophical roots to the modern face’ (Springer 2022) and the ‘Human connectome: how the brain works (Springer 2022). He also co-edited the WPA book ‘Advances in Psychiatry vol 3’ (Springer-Verlag 2018), and the book ‘Psychobiology of behavior’ (Springer-Verlag 2019)
Membership in scientific associations
He chairs the ISNP and since 2006, he served as Secretary, since 2008 as co-chair, and currently as Chair of the Private Practice Section and also currently is chair of the section of Evidence Based Psychiatry, of the World Psychiatric Association. He served as Chair of the CINP Credentials and Membership Committee (2010-2) and the Neuropsychological and Psychometric Instruments Section, of the Greek Psychiatric Association. He is an active member of a number of national and international professional organizations, including the EPA, APA, WPA, CINP, ECNP, ISAD, ISBD, EBF and others, peer referee for the Cochrane Collaboration and member of the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP) Advisory Board to the Task Force on the Usefulness of Antidepressants and the Mental Health Economics Task Force of the International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA).
Publications and related issues
Dr. Fountoulakis served for almost 20 years as Editor of Annals of General Psychiatry and stepped out at the end of 2019. He currently serves as field editor of CNS Spectrums (IF=3.9). He also served as Section Editor of Current Opinion in Psychiatry as well as guest editor in other international journals.
Administration experience
In 2009 was appointed member and in 2012-4 chair of the Greek Ministry of Health Committee for the Administrative, Economic and Scientific Supervision of the Mental Health Units of the deinstitutionalization project. In 2013 was appointed chair of the Independent Committee of Experts for the Assessment of Mental Health Services of the Greek Ministry of Health.
Since 2019 he is head of the Mental Health Section, Research Institute, Greek Medical Association.
International awards
He has received a number of national and international research awards, including the 2012 Kraepelin-Alzheimer medal of the University of Munich and the 2015 Excellence in Education Award of the WFSBP.
Since 2014 he is honorary member of the WPA
Neznanov N. G., Vasileva A. V.
Psychotherapy as epigenetic modulator in the treatment of mental disorders a new challenge for research and practice.
Prof. Neznanov N. G., MD
Since 1995 till now head, Department of psychiatry and narcology, St.Petersburg State Medical University, St. Petersburg, Russia
since 2002 till now director Federal State Budgetary Institution «V. M. Bekhterev National Research Medical Center for Psychiatry and Neurology» of The Russian Federation Ministry of Health
since 2005 till now president World Association of the Dynamic psychiatry (WPA, affiliated member)
since 2010 till now president, Russian Society of Psychiatrists (RSP)
Head nonominal Roszdravnadzor expert-specialist in psychiatry
Honored higher education professor
Honored science leader
Prof. Anna Vasileva
Chief research associate, department of non-psychotic mental disorders treatment and psyhcotherapy
Head of the international liasons department, V. M. Bekhterev National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Neurology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation
Psychiatrist, psychotherapist, psychoanalyst (DAP, Munich, Germany)
professor, psychotherapy, sexology and clinical psychology department, North-Western State Medical University named after I.I. Mechnikov , St. Petersburg, Russia chair Russian branch, World association for Dynamic Pscyhiatry, affiliated WPA member
Prof. Thomas G. Schulze, MD
WPA Secretary for Sections
Chair and Director of the Institute of Psychiatric Phenomics and Genomics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
Lecture – Multiomics of major psychiatric disorders
Professor Thomas G. Schulze, born in 1969, studied medicine in Germany, the USA, and Catalonia. He trained as a psychiatrist and held various positions in Germany (Bonn, Mannheim, Göttingen) and the USA (Chicago, IL; Bethesda, MD; Baltimore, MD)Lecture – Multiomics of major psychiatric disorders
Since 2014, he has held the position of Chair and Director of the Institute of Psychiatric Phenomics and Genomics (www.ippg.eu) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (IPPG). He is a research affiliate with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, MD, and on Faculty with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. In 2019, he also joined the Faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA, where he holds an appointment as Clinical Professor. He is licensed to practice medicine in the European Union and the State of New York. He resides both in Germany and the USA.
Dr. Schulze’s research focuses on genotype-phenotype relationships and personalized medicine approaches in psychiatric disorders. He coordinates a German-wide center grant on longitudinal psychosis research (www.PsyCourse.de) and spearheads an international study on the genetic basis of response to lithium treatment in bipolar disorder (www.ConLiGen.org), comprising several research groups from Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. He has authored over 300 papers. In addition to national German awards, he is the 2006 recipient of the Robins-Guze-Award of the American Psychopathological Association (APPA), the 2006 recipient of the Theodore-Reich-Award of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics (ISPG), and the winner of the Colvin Prize 2016 of the Brain & Behavioral Research Foundation (BBRF). He is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), the APPA, and served as President of the APPA from 2015 through 2016. Between 2016 and 2020, he also held the office of President of the ISPG. From 2011 through 2017, he served as the Chair of the Section on Psychiatric Genetic of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), which he is an Honorary Member of. In 2017, he was elected to the Executive Committee of the WPA, starting a 6-year term as Secretary of Scientific Sections. In 2021, he was elected to the German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina.org).
DINESH BHUGRA CBE
President, Royal College of Psychiatrists (2008-2011)
President, World Psychiatric Association (2014-2017)
President, British Medical Association (2018-2019)
Professor Emeritus of Mental Health and Cultural Diversity, Kings College London
Lecture – GeoPsychiatry: dawn of a new discipline
As a cultural psychiatrist he has been always interested in the impact of culture on mental health. As part of WPA programme he led on and crafted 20 Position Statements on various topics some of which have strongly influenced policy in governments around the world. He established Presidential task Forces on Child abuse and Neglect, Inter-personal Violence, Prisoner mental Health care, Migrant health care, LGBT populations’ mental health care and those of people with intellectual disabilities. He created programmes for mental health promotion and appointed Good Will Ambassadors from Bollywood and Hollywood along with patients and religious leaders. He established 6 WPA Collaborating centres in different parts of the world to share research, policy and training. Following a survey of discrimination against people with mental illness in 193 countries, he developed Bill of Rights for Individuals with mental Illness signed by 60 organisations which was followed by Bills of Rights for Children and young people and for those with intellectual disabilities.
He has authored/co-authored over 500 scientific papers, chapters , editorials and 40 books. Three of his books have been translated into Mandarin and Japanese and various books have won awards including Oxford Textbook for Public Mental Health which was BMA Book of the Year in psychiatry in 2019. The same year, Practical Cultural Psychiatry was highly recommended. He is the Editor of the International Journal of Social Psychiatry and International Review of Psychiatry. On the occasion of 75th anniversary of the NHS, Conversations on the NHS including interviews with policymakers, doctors, patients and journalists will be published by Routledge. His new book Psychiatrists on Psychiatry will be out in May 2023.
He is on the Board of Sane and Psychiatric Research Trust charities. Between 2019-2022 he chaired DocHealth charity which provides psychotherapy to doctors and medical students.