November 16, 2017

Between 10 and 12 November 2017 the Medical School hosted the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) seminar. This was the first time that an ECNP seminar had been conducted in Cyprus. It was an initiative of the Medical School and was directed by Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Dr Anna Polyniki.

The ECNP is an independent, nongovernmental, scientific association dedicated to the science and treatment of disorders of the brain. Founded in 1987, its goal is to bring together scientists and clinicians to facilitate information-sharing and to stimulate new discoveries. To fulfil this aim, the ECNP organises an annual ECNP Congress, which attracts around 5,000 psychiatrists, neuroscientists, neurologists and psychologists from around the world.   It is the largest congress held on applied and translational neuroscience. In addition to the annual congress, the ECNP organises a wide range of activities, programmes and events across Europe, such as the seminar held in Cyprus, in order to fulfil its aims.

The seminar proved to be a great success for those who attended – psychiatrists and psychologists from the private and public health sectors as well as medical students.  The keyword of the meeting was interaction. Participants discussed several psychiatric case reports and explored ways of moving from a particular case report to a scientific case series. Leading ECNP experts from Israel facilitated small-group discussion allowing the participants to present their abstracts and to obtain feedback from their colleagues and local mentors.

At the end of the seminar, the best presented abstract was awarded the sum of €1,000 by the ECNP.   The recipient of the award was Dr Andreas Chatzittofis, who is an Affiliated Researcher at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience of Karolinska Instituet in Sweden, and Visiting Lecturer in Psychiatry at the University of Cyprus Medical School.  Dr Chatzittofis will participate in the next ECNP Congress to be held in Barcelona in October 2018.

Overall the participants were very pleased to be given this unique opportunity to attend a scientific seminar of this kind in their home country, and they are already looking forward to the next one.