Dr Theodoros Koutsomitros, Greece

Director & Founder of Greek rTMS clinic – Medical Psychotherapeutic Centre (ΙΨΚ)
Clinical Director of Education – ΙΨΚ Institute of Psychotherapy, Thessaloniki, Greece
PhD Cognitive Neuroscience Department, Maastricht University, Netherlands

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS): a new era of mental health therapies

Abstract:
Current lecture provides the basic information about one of the most promising rTMS methods used for treatments of mental and CNS disorders. Various issues of TMS-procedure and its technical mechanisms via producing magnetic pulses as the efficacious treatment approach, and the most elaborated /frequently applied therapeutic protocols, such as 3’-37’/sessions, are discussed. The advantages of rTMS treatment, such as its painless character, no requirements for anaesthesia, and the absence of severe side effects, as well as the opportunity of combined use along with pharmaceutical medications, are explained. The studies which prove the efficacy of rTMS and approved clinical recommendations for its use in treatment of depression, comorbid anxiety, OCD, addictions in Australia, America & Europe, are presented.

Prof. Xenia Gonda, MA (Psychology), PhD (Psychiatry), PharmD, Hungary

Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
International Centre for Education and Research, Samara State Medical University, Russia

A bitter pill to swallow? Affective temperaments are possible predictors of treatment non-adherence: results of a meta-analysis

Abstract:
Therapeutic adherence especially in chronic somatic and psychiatric disorders requiring long term or continuous maintenance therapy is pivotal to controlling the symptoms and preventing recurrence, influencing illness course and outcome. Finding and selecting an efficacious pharmacological treatment is thus only one component of the therapeutic success, while the other, equally important and equally challenging, is the active participation of the patient in the form of adhering to medical recommendations.
Several psychological factors may play a central role in influencing therapeutic adherence via their effect on related emotions, cognitions and behavior. One such psychological construct is the model of affective temperaments which have previously been investigated in a small number of methodologically questionable studies. As these studies reported promising results concerning the predictive efficacy of affective temperaments we carried out a systematic review and metaanalysed the resulting 9 studies. We found strong, adverse associations of cyclothymic, irritable, and depressive affective temperament scores with medication adherence suggesting that these temperamental types may predict decreased adherence and thus treatment outcome, and in the clinical practice may contribute to identifying groups at a high risk for non-adherence, help predict success of treatment, and also help devise personalized treatment plans. In the next step we need to depend our understanding on what mediates the effects of affective temperaments on treatment adherence and how these factors can be influenced by different intervention levels from education through support to psychotherapy, and we also need to find further processes related to the core of personality and understand how they, in constellation, influence medication-related attitudes, beliefs, cognitions, emotions and behaviors.

Juan Evangelista Tercero Gaitán Buitrago, Dr., Quindío, Columbia

Psychiatrist
Addiction specialist
Fellow in Dementia and Cognitive decline
Specialist in Cognitive Behavioral therapy
Member of the International scientific commitee – Argentinian society of Personality disorders and psychopaties
Member of the International Foundation for the development of neuroscience
Chair of the scientific commitee – Global Psychiatric Association
Member of the section on psychoneuroendocrinology – World Psychiatric Association
Member of the section on evidence based psychiatry – World Psychiatric Association
CEO Grupo T.E.C.

Effective daily management of the Dementia patient, when the family is the therapeutic team

The treatment of the patient suffering from dementia has been a complex clinical challenge, this presentation focuses on the topic of supplementing current interdisciplinary approaches with the addition of musical stimulation. This approach aims to facilitate the daily interaction of the patient and its caretakers, presenting it as a neurobiological, social and occupational intervention, by facilitating the activation of the default mode network, the social engagement of the patient and the promotion of physical wellbeing. The author gives an overview of the the different strategies of musical therapy, ranging from individual, group and familiar modes of treatment. Also presented is a successful case where music therapy helped an otherwise difficult dementia patient with severe behavioral disturbance.