Epidemiology and Social Psychiatry
Section committee
PREISIG Martin
, Chair
VANDELEUR Caroline,
Secretary Section mission
This Section's mission is to:
Promote research on psychiatric epidemiology, social psychiatry and health service research.
Section objectives
- To promote, initiate and perform research in the areas of psychiatric epidemiology and social psychiatry
- To stimulate recruitment of young talents to the fields of epidemiology, social psychiatric and mental health service research
- To support teaching initiatives in epidemiology and social psychiatry in Europe
- To contribute to the quality of psychiatric research and mental health care across Europe
Annual reports
Future Activities
symposium
EPA congress Prague
31 March 2026 - 31 March 2026 / Prague
Description :
The EPA section will take part in the 34th EPA Congress, Prague, Czech Republic, March 28-31, 2026. Including speakers from 3 countries, the symposium of the Psychiatric Epidemiology and Social Psychiatry section will present recent data on risk factors for the onset and the course of mental disorders. The first speaker, Dr. Caroline Vandeleur will show how traumatic exposure and parental separation experienced before age 18 predicts the emergence of mood and anxiety disorders in a sample of 461 adolescents from the general population followed-up for over 9 years. Considering the Odegaard's hypothesis suggesting that individuals predisposed to psychosis were more likely to migrate, Ms. Bianca Della Rocca will present the results of her study testing whether migrants with psychotic disorders have lower polygenic risk scores than natives with psychotic disorders, which would rather support the major influence of environmental and social factors in the development of psychosis among migrants. Dr. Martin Preisig will present available risk calculators for the onset of mood disorders in the offspring of parents with bipolar and major depressive disorders, including one study that sampled offspring of parents with the two types of mood disorders. Using longitudinal data from deprived areas of Bogota (Colombia), Lima (Peru), and Buenos Aires (Argentina), Dr. James Kirkbride will show the associations between social capital – the prosocial networks and connections that provide reciprocal support, trust and resources to its members – and recovery from depression and anxiety in 1437 young people over a two-year period.
M. Preisig, J. Kirkbride and C. Vandeleur will attend the EPA section coordination meeting in Prague.
conference
The next congress of the EPA section (the 22nd biennial congress) will take place in Brescia in September 2026.
16 September 2026 - 19 September 2026 / Brescia
Description :
The next congress of the EPA section (the 22nd biennial congress) will take place in Brescia in September 2026.