Annual Meeting Promises Ideal Mix of Science, Fun

The weather in many places in the U.S. still seems closer to winter than to spring, so it’s a good time to focus your attention on the invitingly warm climate of New Orleans, the host city of the 154th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.

This year’s annual meeting, which will be held May 5 to 10, will deliver an outstanding scientific program in one of the country’s most exotic cities. APA President Daniel Borenstein, M.D., has chosen an exciting theme for the meeting: “Mind Meets Brain: Integrating Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Neuroscience.” We conduct our clinical and research work in all three of these areas, sometimes singly or by combing two of the three. The idea of integrating the scientific findings in all three of these areas often seems out of reach, only for a theoretical “some day in the future.”

As exciting as the scientific program will be, the city of New Orleans will undoubtedly be a persuasive competitor for members’ attention. The Big Easy is a marvelous place to combine learning, meeting with colleagues, and well-deserved relaxation. We are fortunate to have had the services of the Task Force on Local Arrangements, chaired by Ed Foulks, M.D., and his wife, Janice. As you have read in the Leisure Time Brochure (found in the back of the Advance Registration Information Booklet that all members should have received by now), they have arranged a remarkable variety of activities that will provide something for everyone. For those who arrive early, an added bonus this year is the New Orleans Heritage and Jazz Festival, known as Jazz Fest. This extremely popular event, which attracts hundreds of thousands of people, takes place over two weekends each spring. This year the second weekend of Jazz Fest will be from Thursday, May 3, through Sunday, May 6. Since people who attend APA’s annual meeting and Jazz Fest come from around the world, those wishing to arrive in New Orleans before Sunday should book their airline reservations as soon as possible.

There is not enough room to describe all the wonderful sessions that have been planned for the annual meeting. Let me review only a few of the invited speakers for the meeting. Eric Kandel, M.D., well known for his research and his call to integrate the findings of neuroscience with psychoanalysis, will present the Second Annual Marmor Award Lecture. Dr. Kandel is one of the three recipients of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Medicine. Another Nobel laureate, Gerald Edelman, M.D., and his colleague, Guilio Tononi, M.D., will present Frontiers of Science lectures on the topic of consciousness. Steven Hyman, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health, will present the Adolf Meyer Lecture. He will discuss the development of DSM-V and how to approach psychiatric diagnosis in the 21st century.

To address the crucially important issue of patient confidentiality, Dr. Borenstein organized the forum “Confidentiality and Medical Record Privacy in the 21st Century” for this year’s annual meeting. Among the speakers are Paul W. Mosher, M.D., Marcia K. Goin, M.D., Margo P. Goldman, M.D., Richard K. Harding, M.D., and Latanya Sweeney, Ph.D.

In keeping with the president’s theme, we are most fortunate to have Ray Kurzweil, author of The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, who will share his ideas about the future of technology and people. His presentation—something not to be missed—will bring the future into the present. Doug Wright, a playwright and screenwriter who has won an Obie, will speak on artistic freedom and censorship. His play about the Marquis de Sade, “Quills,” has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The play was the basis for the movie of the same name now playing in most communities.

We also will hear from Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D., a leading thinker in genetics research, about the role of genetics in psychiatry, and from Michael Gershon, Ph.D., about the “second brain,” that is, the complex neurophysiology of the gastrointestinal system. Edythe London, Ph.D., will present research on the neuroimaging of individuals with substance use disorders.

As part of the International Psychiatrist Lecture Series, neuropsychologist Mark L. Solms, Ph.D., will present “An Example of Neuropsychoanalytic Research: The Right Hemisphere Syndrome.” Solms, of St. Bartholomew’s and Royal London School of Medicine in England, is the author of The Neuropsychology of Dreams. He will also participate in the Presidential Symposium, “The Royal Road Revisited, Dreams in the 21st Century.”

At this point perhaps you are thinking, “Enough! My brain is full,” but there is much more to come. Each year several APA members are selected to deliver a Distinguished Psychiatrist Lecture. This year five notable APA members will receive a Distinguished Psychiatrist Award: Donald Kornfeld, M.D., Ellen Leibenluft, M.D., Paul McHugh, M.D., Leo Rangell, M.D., and Donna Stewart, M.D. Each promises to be interesting and worth attending.

The case conferences and continuous case conference will reflect the theme in the practical experience of working with patients. There will be four case conferences: “A Neuroscience Perspective on Transference in Psychotherapy,” presented by Glen O. Gabbard, M.D.; “A Vital Role for Psychotherapy in Neuropsychiatry: Body-Image Anxiety in Huntington’s Disease,” presented by Stuart W. Taylor, M.D., and Gary J. Tucker, M.D.; “Vocal Cord Dyskinesia: A Dynamic Interchange Between Medicine and Psychiatry,” presented by Geoffrey M. Gabriel, M.D., and Harold J. Wain, Ph.D.; and “Assessment of Prognostic Factors in Alcoholic Patients” presented by Kathy L. Coffman, M.D., and Thomas P. Beresford, M.D.

The continuous case conference this year is “Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for a Patient With Personality Disorder,” presented by Anton C. Trinidad, M.D., and Stephen P. McDermott, M.D.

In addition to the invited lectures and symposia, there will be hundreds of other sessions in a variety of formats. In collaboration with the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, APA will be one of the first organizations to offer a course that will certify participants to use buprenorphine (Psychiatric News, February 16). There will be both workshops and courses on computers, the use of which is becoming a requisite skill in modern psychiatry. One of the media sessions is an appropriately timed presentation and discussion of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

While I have highlighted only a few of the exciting sessions planned for the meeting in this brief overview; look for more information in future issues of Psychiatric News. You may also want to refer back to the February 16 issue, which contained the preliminary program and articles on meeting highlights and the city of New Orleans. Please make your plans now to join us for what promises to be a wonderful experience at APA’s 154th Annual Meeting. ▪