NEWSLETTER June 2021 to advance education and research in the science of www.bap.org.uk psychopharmacology for the public benefit INSIDE 1 Message from the BAP President Message from the BAP President 2–3 Summer Meeting 2021 4–8 2021 I am delighted to report that Election for BAP Officers and Council our forthcoming 2021 Summer Members 8 Attitudes Towards Lithium Meeting, which will be held as a Project - Survey; 2021 Membership virtual event from Monday 19 to Subscriptions 9–10 The Unexpected Wednesday 21 July, contains all the usual exciting sessions. All the Benefits of Remote Working 10 VPM symposia planned for last year have been transferred Library 11 Media Activity 12 Education into the programme and will each include latest Events updates in their field. In addition to the usual Clinical and Non-Clinical sessions we have a special session discussing the impact of Covid-19 on mental health. All talks will be pre-recorded and available to members for a fixed period after the meeting. We are delighted to have received over 120 abstracts demonstrating the continued commitment to psychopharmacology British Association for research despite challenging times. I am particularly Psychopharmacology grateful that you have chosen the BAP as a forum to present this work. To maximise interaction between 36 Cambridge Place delegates, poster presenters will be asked to pre- Hills Road record a short oral explanation of their work which Cambridge CB2 1NS will become available the week prior to the meeting, with live question and answer during timetabled 01223 358 395 poster sessions. In addition to our usual poster prizes Executive Officer we have also introduced a ‘peoples prize’ voted for by Susan Chandler • [email protected] you, the delegates, for your favourite poster. I want to Assistant to the Executive Officer give special thanks to Sarah Channing-Wright (BAP) Lynne Harmer • [email protected] and Peter Tysoe (Stream Projects) who have built the Online Resources and Communications Developer BAP Live Online system so effectively to enable all Sarah Channing-Wright • [email protected] these sessions at our 2021 summer meeting to occur. Registration for BAP Training and student members For m @BAPsych is free, so please encourage the junior researchers in your group to take advantage of this opportunity. BritishAssociationforPsychopharmacology We may have to wait until 2022 for the disco and Gala Dinner to return, but I am confident that this /company/britishassociationforpsychopharmacology Summer Meeting will deliver the high-quality science that it is renowned for. The British Association for Psychopharmacology is registered in England as a Private Company No 5866899. Kevin Fone Registered Charity No 277825. HIGHLIGHTS 9 Invited Symposia 3 Post-Doctoral Symposia ⚫ Non-invasive neurostimulation treatments ⚫ The next phase of computational psychiatry: from first episode to treatment-resistant broader applications and novel methods depression: clinical efficacy and mechanisms ⚫ Heterogeneity in psychiatric illness: How far of action are we from personalised medicine? ⚫ Big data approaches to understanding mental ⚫ Predictive factors of adolescent mental health disorders and treatment response and translational implications of predictive ⚫ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – Biological testing determinants and pathways to treatment Plenary Symposium, Monday 19 July ⚫ Mapping impulsivity and compulsivity: phenotypes, cognitive markers, neural domains Suicide: from basic to clinical science and treatment Suicide is an individual tragedy and a public health ⚫ Enabling translational psychopharmacology issue of major proportions. In this session leading through preclinical MR technology international experts will review the basic science of suicide in terms of neuroscientific and related ⚫ Does research on body-brain interactions processes; the clinical aspects with reference to hold promise for the development of novel the latest data driven approaches and the clinical treatments for addiction and eating disorders? psychopharmacology of antisuicidal treatments. ⚫ What can computational analyses of brain imaging data tell us about mechanisms in Trainees’ Workshop, Tuesday 20 July psychiatric disorders? Funding and Fellowships ⚫ Social neuropeptides: Central oxytocin and The BAP wants to support early career researchers vasopressin pathways and translational and trainees develop a career in psychopharmacology implications and translational research. This workshop will ⚫ Cognitive impairment in mood disorders - a consider the value of an early career fellowship/ forgotten pharmacological target? new investigator funding, a discussion of funding opportunities in this area, what makes for successful applications and networking opportunity with people who hold both non-clinical and clinical fellowships. 2 June 2021 Clinical Session, Wednesday 21 July translatability, or perhaps whether primate research, specifically in cortical regions, will be more fruitful. Are we getting closer to translatability in New techniques are allowing greater dissection of neuropsychiatric research? neuronal pathways and mechanisms involved in The panel will describe work based on the model of psychiatric disease and may yield more targetted experience dependent plasticity and brain dynamics approaches to therapy. Finally, one of the challenges in response to sensory stimuli and pharmacological across all areas of biomedical research has been challenge in the context of neurodevelopmental reproducibility. A number of industry-academic conditions such as autism (ASC). Dr Eva Loth will partnerships have been established to look at ways to describe the background and approach to the AIMS- improve the methodology and translational relevance 2-TRIALS project structures. Dr Judit Ciarrusta will of animal research - but are we getting any closer to describe her work on the biological underpinning of translatability? brain vulnerability to neurodevelopmental conditions in early infancy. Dr Nicolaas Puts will describe how Special Session, Wednesday 21 July neuroimaging methods (edited MRS of GABA) and COVID-19 Current Research transcranial magnetic stimulation can be used to examine the relationship between neurotransmitter SARS-CoV-2 infection, and the pandemic, are having concentration, GABA-receptor function, quantifiable substantial and diverse effects on mental and brain aspects of altered sensory perception, and health. This symposium will explore and discuss these clinical manifestations of ASC. Professor Grainne issues. Tom Nicholson will provide an overview of the McAlonan will provide an overview of current neuropsychiatry of COVID-19, and Max Taquet will clinical psychopharmacology in ASC as well as present electronic health records data on the incidence pharmacological responsivity in the adult ASC brain. and relative risks of psychiatric and neurological She will discuss how these approaches contribute disorders after COVID-19. Cognitive impairment and to work within AIMS-2-TRIALS (the world’s largest ‘brain fog’ are increasingly of concern in COVID-19 grant for ASC) to identify causal mechanisms in ASC survivors, and Adam Hampshire will show how and novel intervention targets. online cognitive assessments are shedding light on the severity and nature of these difficulties. Finally, Non-Clinical Session, Wednesday 21 July Cath Harmer will present novel data suggesting that statins influence resilience to depression during the Innovative medicine approaches for pandemic. The session will include plenty of time for neurodevelopmental disorders discussion. Translation of biomedical research into the clinic is a problem across all areas of research. For two decades the apparent failure of animal models For more information and to register, go to to deliver new treatments has been discussed. www.bap.org.uk/BAP2021 This symposium aims to address whether new developments in rodent models can deliver improved June 2021 3 2021 Election for BAP Officers Two Elected Council Member posts and Council Members (Post 1) Dr Sameer Jauhar has held this post as a casual vacancy for one year. The deadline for nominations for two Officer and two (Post 2) Dr Tom Freeman will retire from council. Council seats has now passed. Three nominations were received: Honorary General Secretary Sameer Jauhar Dr Peter Talbot will retire from Council. Steven Marwaha One nomination was received for the post of Honoary Digby Quested General Secretary, so Professor Rachel Upthegrove will be elected unopposed. Read Rachel’s statement Read all candidates’ statements below. below. Voting is online via the website only at www.bap.org.uk/vote and will close on MONDAY 28 Secretary for Non-Clinical External JUNE. The results will be announced at the electronic Affairs Annual General Meeting in July. Dr Sarah Bailey will retire from council. The BAP aims to represent the interests of all psychopharmacologists. Council asks Members to bear this One nomination was received for the post of Secretary in mind when voting, to ensure a balance of expertise. Please for Non-Clinical External Affairs, so Dr Maddy King refer to the BAP Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement will be elected unopposed. Read Maddy’s statement www.bap.org.uk/equality.php below. Current Officers and Council See website for biographies www.bap.org.uk/council ELECTED OFFICERS ELECTED COUNCIL MEMBERS Professor Kevin Fone Dr Sameer Jauhar President (Post 1) Dr Tom Freeman Professor David Baldwin (Post 2) President-Elect Professor Rachel Upthegrove