Short presentation summaries

Dr. Raul Andero
Institute of Neurosciences, Department of Psychobiology and Health Sciences Methodology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; CIBERSAM, Parc Taulí Health Corporation, Sabadell; Department of Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

In these past few years basic Neuroscience has been characterised by the birth of techniques which permit having an important time-space control of neural processes. The challenge in these next few years will be to incorporate these techniques and new discoveries in laboratory animals into clinics. Considering this, translational studies which combine human and animal model data can help to understand the brain’s molecular mechanisms in health and disease.
 

Dr. Maria J. Portella
Head of the Research Group in Psychiatric Disorders. Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute (IIB-Sant Pau). Psychiatry Services, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Mental Health Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERSAM-G21)

Given a lack of response to available pharmacological treatments, scientists study new therapeutic strategies to relieve the suffering of patients with psychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorder or schizophrenia. One of these strategies is deep brain stimulation (DBS), an invasive neurosurgical technique in which electrodes are implanted inside the brain in order to offer continuous high frequency electrical stimulation in brain structures related to the disorder being treated. The DBS technique is becoming one of the most promising alternatives for some of the most treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders.

The Public Data Analysis for Health Research and Innovation Program (PADRIS) aims to provide access to the reuse and cross referencing of the health data generated by the SISCAT (Integrated Public Use Healthcare System of Catalonia) to the scientific community in order to foster health research and innovation. The objective of the talk is to explore the options offered by the PADRIS program to researchers in the field of Mental Health.

How different systems of mobility and remote care can be put to the service of mental health patients. From APPs which transmit information to health professionals in an immediate and trustworthy manner and remote monitoring platforms which foresee impending imbalances of different mental pathologies, to applied virtual reality as a support tool for different therapies.

Dr. Iluminada Corripio
Clinical leader of the m-RESIST psychiatry project. Coordinator of the Resistant Schizophrenia Group. Hospital de Sant Pau.

This conference will serve to present the m-RESIST project, with funding from the EU within the framework of the Horizon 2020 programme. This project aims to develop a telepsychiatry-based intervention programme which allows patients with resistant schizophrenia to improve the self-management of their disorder. This personalised intervention will offer immediate and continuous attention and incorporate the figure of the caregiver into the therapeutic process. The programme will also include the bases of a model to predict the condition of resistance thanks to sophisticated data engineering, with the aim of classifying the profile of resistance to the treatment according to epidemiological and clinical variables.

Senior Psychiatrist. CSMA Esquerra Eixample. Hospital Clínic de Barcelona

The efforts put into creating Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) do not correspond to the efforts made to implement them. Computerised CPGs are more accessible, but also require evidence-based implementation plans. If not, there may be no change in the conduct of professionals, nor any improvement in clinical results, reducing clinical variability in primary healthcare. A multifaceted programme well assessed by Parc Taulí improves the use of the guidelines in primary healthcare and allows to increase diagnostics and risk assessment in suicide at short term. The results of the analyses at 6 and 18 months will be presented to determine whether the implementation results are maintained throughout time.

Mental Health nurse. Institut de Neuropsiquiatria i Addiccions (INAD). Hospital del Mar. Parc de Salut Mar. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

iFightDepression is an EU online self-management programme, designed to help people with mild or moderate depression to better understand and deal with their symptoms. It is a tool complementary to treatment, and it is multilingual. The tool is guided by mental health professionals, with no waiting lists. An e-Health challenge for both professionals and health services.

Mr. Juan Francisco Serra
Psychologist. Department of Psychiatry. Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron

ADHD is a very prevalent psychiatric disorder in the general adult population. It has been observed that these patients have greater difficulties in obtaining and maintaining a job, in addition to a higher morbidity and mortality risk than the rest of the population, which implies an important economic, social and personal cost. Mindfulness is a third-generation cognitive behavioral psychological treatment that has been shown to be effective in reducing ADHD symptoms and improving cognitive performance. On the other hand, virtual reality is increasingly used as a treatment of different mental and medical disorders. It is based on the principles of behaviorism and implies an improvement in behavioral treatment called exposure in imagination. In addition, it has the advantage that could be used from home, since it only requires the device (a virtual reality glasses) and a smartphone with Internet access.

Dr. Lluis Capdevila
Lecturer in Psychology, UAB. CEO - Health&SportLab, PRUAB. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) permit momentary ecological assessments of many conducts and situations related to the lifestyle and mental health of users. The combination of device-specific sensors (e.g. accelerometer, GPS, video camera, microphone, Bluetooth connection) and the gamification of cognitive aspects facilitate the assessment and management of stress. mHealth technology is used for example to monitor the process of stress/recovery when doing sports, to assess the efficacy of relaxation interventions in companies, as a biofeedback tool, to treat phobias and depression with the use of virtual reality, etc.