Timur Syunyakov, MD, PhD (Psychiatry), Russia
International Centre for Education and Research in Neuropsychiatry, Samara State Medical University, Samara, Russia
Chief Coordinator on Statistical Data Analysis
Mental Health Clinic No. 1 n.a. N.A. Alexeev of Moscow Healthcare Department
Zakusov Research Institute of Pharmacology, Senior researcher, Moscow, Russia

The link between biological mechanisms and symptoms of psychiatric disorders

There is a notion that psychiatry is very different from the rest of medicine. As an explanation for this one can say that in somatic medicine a diagnosis have clear-defined causes and, more importantly, valid mechanisms, whereas in psychiatry the “substrate” of the disorder remains unknown. This lecture provides ground in favour of validity of psychiatric diagnostic since recent studies revealed meaningful and valid mechanisms underlying symptoms of psychiatric disorders. As an example, the mechanisms of disorders with high and low genetic underpinning are discussed.

Timur Syunyakov, MD, PhD (Psychiatry), Russia
International Centre for Education and Research in Neuropsychiatry, Samara State Medical University, Samara, Russia
Chief Coordinator on Statistical Data Analysis
Mental Health Clinic No. 1 n.a. N.A. Alexeev of Moscow Healthcare Department
Zakusov Research Institute of Pharmacology, Senior researcher, Moscow, Russia

Mechanisms of anxiety and contemporary treatment of anxiety disorders

In the 11th version of International Classification of Diseases a classification of anxiety disorders was revised. A new views seems to better reflect biological underpinnings of specific anxiety disorders and explain phenomenological heterogeneity of their signs, symptoms and comorbidity. In this lecture we overview those mechanisms in terms of better understanding of targets of psychopharmacoltherapy. This information may help in rational choice of treatment and in providing of psychoeducation to the patients with anxiety disorders.

Nikita Zorin, MD, PhD, Russia

MD, PhD, Russian Society for Evidence Based Medicine vice-president; Russian Philosophical Society member; French speaking psychiatrist association member; International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research member; World Federation for Mental Health member, Moscow, Russia

Killing me softly, or euthanasia as a product of liberal economics

What is really behind the legalisation of euthanasia and its rapid progress around the world? How is it integrated into the economic and cultural development of society? How did medicine begin to transform itself into its opposite, proposing killing on an equal or instead of curing, forming a whole class of professional executioners within itself? How did the replacement of concepts take place, creating an oxymoron: “forced good death”? Language games as a tool of perversion of meaning. What is the role of the psychiatrist, and is he capable of judging the intolerability of the suffering of those who are being put to death, their “free will”, their “awareness” of what they are asking for, and even more so, of what they are not asking for?

Aleksey Pavlichenko, MD, PhD, Russia

MD, PhD, Senior Educator, Education Center, Mental Health Clinic №1 named after N.A. Alexeev of the Department of Healthcare of the city of Moscow, Moscow, Russia

Symptoms and symptom clasters of monopolar depression and their connection with therapy

According to the modern international classifications, to diagnose depression it is necessary that five symptoms out of nine (or ten) must be present for most of the time, almost every day, for at least two weeks, with the obligatory presence of depressed mood or decreased interests. The ICD-11 divides depressive symptoms into three clusters (affective, cognitive-behavioral, and somatic) that may be clinically useful. There have been attempts to link specific depressive symptoms to response to different antidepressants and specific psychotherapy. Antidepressants have been shown to be more effective for major affective symptoms and for sleep-related symptoms and not as effective for “atypical” symptoms. Some evidence supports the fact that a symptom profile, in addition to the diagnosis of depression itself, may be of value in predicting response to specific antidepressants or a particular type of psychotherapy.

Nikita Zorin, MD, PhD, Russia

MD, PhD, Russian Society for Evidence Based Medicine vice-president; Russian Philosophical Society member; French speaking psychiatrist association member; International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research member; World Federation for Mental Health member, Moscow, Russia

Euthanasia and psychiatry: from patient with depression towards a doctor with depression

Abstract:
What is really behind the legalisation of euthanasia and its rapid progress around the world? How is it integrated into the economic and cultural development of society? How did medicine begin to transform itself into its opposite, proposing killing on an equal or instead of curing, forming a whole class of professional executioners within itself? How did the replacement of concepts take place, creating an oxymoron: “forced good death”? Language games as a tool of perversion of meaning. What is the role of the psychiatrist, and is he capable of judging the intolerability of the suffering of those who are being put to death, their ” free will”, their “awareness” of what they are asking for, and even more so, of what they are not asking for?

Prof. Vladimir Mendelevich, MD, PhD, DMSc, Russia

Mental Health Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Kazan
State Medical University, Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia

Self-harm behaviour: hierarchical and network analysis

Abstract:
The problem of self-harm behaviour is described in a comparative aspects from the standpoint of hierarchical and traditional approaches in psychiatry towards the innovative network analysis. The rationale for highlighting non-suicidal behaviour as an independent diagnosis is discussed in detail. The analysis of the problem of self-harm behaviour demonstrates the presence of many unresolved issues, such as defining the boundaries of “normative” behaviour (based on the youth style preferences), psychopathological self-harm patterns, as well as the search of significant interrelationships between suicidal and parasuicidal behaviour. The innovative approach to the psychopathology network analysis needs further research to evaluate this complicated self-harm behaviour phenomenon.