21st biennial congress – In-person – 11-14 Sep, 2024 Lausanne, Switzerland

Public mental health re-imagined: a roadmap towards global equity

Balancing rocksWe are delighted to welcome you to our 20th biennial Congress of the European Psychiatric Association Section of Epidemiology and Social Psychiatry. Our congress will be held in the historic and beautiful university city of Cambridge in the East of England.

Our 20th biennial congress will be a very special celebration of the contribution that psychiatric epidemiology and social psychiatry have made to understanding and improving public mental health over the past 40 years. It provides us with an opportunity to 

  • look back at the progress made by our discipline in contributing to population mental health; 
  • look across to the current research being conducted in our field throughout Europe and beyond, including work in response to global inequities in mental health and the impact of COVD-19;
  • look forward to addressing the challenges and issues that continue to cause inequalities in the distribution, determinants and outcome of mental health problems throughout the world.

You can find out more about what to expect from #EPAPsyEpi2022 by reading on below 

Our Congress theme

The official theme of this year’s congress is “Public mental health re-imagined: a roadmap towards global equity”. In this very special congress, we invite our speakers and delegates to engage with this theme, thinking about what their perfect vision for public mental health would look like, and how psychiatric epidemiology and social psychiatry should respond to meet that challenge.

Each person’s vision may be unique, but through the similarities that bind our disciplines together, we hope that the conversations, discussions and research showcased at our 20th congress will allow us identify those priority areas to improve public mental health over the next decade.

Beyond our main theme, we will welcome abstract submissions from all areas of psychiatric epidemiology, social psychiatry and public mental health. Abstract submission is now closed. To register for the Congress and benefit from our most competitive rates, head over to our registration page.

International plenaries

We are honoured to confirm participation from several internationally-renowned researchers working in the fields of epidemiology, social psychiatry and public mental health across Europe and beyond.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot

Prof. Sir Michael Marmot

Professor Ann John

Prof. Ann John

Professor Peter Jones

Prof. Peter B. Jones

Prof. Inez Myin-Germeys

Prof. Inez Myin-Germeys

Professor Ian Colman

Prof. Ian Colman

Full details of our plenary speakers can be found here. Their outstanding contributions cover a range of topics, including social inequalities in mental health, suicide prevention, adverse childhood experiences, the epidemiology of common mental disorders and severe mental disorders and cutting-edge use of big data and experienced sampling methods to improve population mental health.

45 years & counting: A special lunchtime seminar on the history of our Section

45 years & Counting: a guide to our Section

Anthony Mann, professor emeritus of Epidemiological Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, KCL                 

– Fri 9th Sep, 12:30 – 13:15  |  Lecture Room 2

As our Section celebrates its 45th year and 20th Biennial Congress, join Emeritus Professor Anthony Mann (local host of the 8th Congress when it was last held in Cambridge in 1996), on a voyage of discovery looking back at the history of our Section as well as considering its future place as a leading global organisation representing the practices of psychiatric epidemiology and social psychiatry.

We are honoured to welcome Professor Mann to give this special talk to our Congress, which accompanies a paper he co-authored on our Section’s history with fellow esteemed psychiatrist Professor Siegfried Weyerer who was unfortunately unable to attend this meeting. The paper has been circulated to delegates in the run-up to the Congress, and is available for download as a pdf or to read at www.psychepi.org/history.

Professor Mann built a global reputation as a psychiatrist and epidemiologist, working both at the Royal Free Hospital London and later joining King’s College London, succeeding Michael Shepherd as Professor of Epidemiological Psychiatry, in charge of the section of Epidemiology and General Practice. His personal areas of research have been the epidemiology of old age psychiatric disorders, the psychiatry of general practice and global mental health. Beyond his research Professor Mann has made a notable contribution to training researchers from around the world; currently there are 25 Professors of Psychiatry who were mentored or directly supervised by him. Professor Gill Livingston, UCL, commented “Like the best clinical academics, he inspired a generation of researchers and patients. His research is varied, but he is particularly interested in  measuring and describing mental ill health and its connection with physical ill health. His research was often with older people, but also encompassed depression and anxiety and their link with cardiac symptoms, chronic fatigue, medically unexplained symptoms and eating disorders.”

More recently, Professor Mann has divided his time between the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience and the University of Montpellier, where he was appointed Associate Professor.

You can read and download the accompanying paper by Professors Mann & Weyerer here.  

Mental Health Question Time on Social Inequalities in Mental Health

An exclusive panel discussion on:

Priorities for action to reduce & remove social inequalities in risk and outcomes of mental health disorders

We are thrilled to host an exclusive in-person roundtable discussion, brought to you in conjunction with The Mental Elf, UCL Division of Psychiatry and The Lancet Psychiatry, and live-streamed to a global audience via The Mental Elf’s YouTube channel.

Chaired by Prof. Praveetha Patalay from UCL, this roundtable event will give delegates the chance to hear from leading experts from academia, clinical psychiatry, by lived experience, public policy and the charitable sector about priorities for action to reduce and remove social inequalities in mental health. We’ll also be asking what epidemiology, social psychiatry and public mental health can and should contribute to this space. In-room delegates, and those online, will get the chance to put their burning questions to our panelists, so get your thinking caps on! 

Visit our MHQT page to find out full details of this very special event.

World Suicide Prevention Day 2022

World Suicide Prevention Day 2022On Saturday 10th September, we are pleased to promote World Suicide Prevention Day 2022, which coincides with the final day of our 20th Congress. To mark this occasion, we are promoting the latest epidemiological research in suicidality and self-harm, including through our closing plenary from Prof. Ann John (Swansea University, UK). We’ll also be featuring an ECR Keynote Prize talk on self-harm from Dr Linda Ejlskov (Aarhus University, Denmark) and a parallel oral session on Progress in the epidemiology of suicidality & self-harm.

Visit our World Suicide Prevention Day 2022 page to see full details of our planned activities on Sat 10th September.  

Early Career Research focus

Students around a table on laptopsAt #EPAPsyEpi2022 we will showcase outstanding research conducted by Early Career Researchers (ECR) in our fields to help ECRs move towards academic independence. We will do so in innovative ways, including hearing from ECR keynote speakers, ECR prizes, rapid-fire oral presentations to give ECRs more chance to present their work in an oral format, and ECR-specific social and networking events.

For students, we have kept registration fees as low as possible to enable you to attend the congress at an early career stage. We will arrange ECR social activities to support peer networking during the congress. We will run 3 competitions for ECR, including our prestigious ECR Keynote Prize (see above), as well as prizes awarded for the best rapid-fire oral and poster presentations at #EPAPsyEpi2022.

Invited ECR Keynotes

We are delighted to showcase some of the best emerging early career researchers (ECR) working in the fields of psychiatric epidemiology and social psychiatry. This will include one lucky ECR judged to have submitted the best abstract to #EPAPsyEpi2022. All abstracts will be reviewed and judged by our Scientific Advisory Board. 

Full details of our keynote speakers can be found here. We are committed to supporting our ECR community through various activities and events, including excellent value registration fees for students, social programme and rapid-fire talks

ECR Keynote Prize Winners

The EPA Section of Epidemiology & Social Psychiatry has a long tradition of supporting junior researchers in our fields. This year, in addition to our invited ECR keynote speakers and Rapid-Fire ECR talks, we jointly awarded the ECR Prize to two ECR* members whose submitted abstracts were rated joint highest by our Scientific Committee.

We congratulate Dr Linda Ejlskov (Aarhus University, Denmark) and Dr Rachel Latham (King’s College London) on this award. As part of their prize, they will present a 15 minute ECR keynote in our main auditorium (the Concert Hall) during our Congress. For full details, please see our programme

*We define ECRs as students or postdoctoral researchers within 5 years of the award of their doctoral degree. Proof of status will be requested.

ECR Rapid-Fire Talks

Rapid-fire talks provide Early Career Researchers  (ECR*) the opportunity to give a concise oral presentation of their work at an international meeting, as an alternative to a poster.

They are a great way to learn about new research in a short period of time. There will be two parallel rapid-fire sessions taking place during the Thursday + Friday lunch interval, each with 10-11 speakers given 5 minutes each (4 mins + 1 min for questions) to present their work. We encourage delegates to show their support of ECRs by participating in these sessions.

We will award a prize to the best ECR Rapid-Fire talk during our Congress. The prize winner will be announced at our Closing Ceremony on 10 September. 

*We define ECRs as students or postdoctoral researchers within 5 years of the award of their doctoral degree. Proof of status will be requested.

Poster prize

Posters will be displayed in the Recital Room at our Congress venue, West Road Concert Hall. We will have over 50 posters on display, with around half shown on Thursday and Friday, respectively. Posters will be on display all day, with the main viewing taking place during the lunch interval. Poster presenters are asked to stand by their posters during their assigned session at lunch. See the programme for further details. 

Members of the Scientific Committee will be visiting all posters during the Congress, with a prize awarded to best poster. The prize winner will be announced at our Closing Ceremony on 10 September. 

Participation by people with lived experience

People looking at a laptopWe are pleased to invite people with lived experience of mental health problems & carers to attend our congress at a discounted rate.

This opportunity would be suitable for people who wish to learn more about the role social psychiatry and epidemiology play in mental health research. Psychiatric epidemiology and social psychiatry are fundamentally rooted in improving public mental health, and to do so requires our science to be informed by the needs, ideas and views of the wider public, including people with lived experience.

For people with lived experience or their carers who wish to apply for a discounted delegate place at the congress, click here for more details. 

At this year’s congress, we will include abstract submissions of relevant research from people with lived experience. In addition, all participants who submit research to the congress will be required to write a summary of their work suitable for the general public. 

We have included people with different backgrounds and experiences on our Local Organising Committee and Scientific Committee.

Social activities & networking opportunities

Punting on the River CamWe hope that the historic academic city of Cambridge will provide delegates with a relaxing, inspiring and picturesque environment to come together during our Congress.

After two years of highly restricted social gatherings, we look forward to meeting face-to-face again, in a safe environment to celebrate the successes of our research community. Our 20th congress promises an opportunity for delegates from across the world to reconnect in-person, celebrate our achievements, and develop new, strong social connections. 

We’ve arranged a number of social activities, ranging from our welcome reception to punt tours to break-out spaces in our state-of-the-art conference venue, and our celebratory congress dinner, ensuring delegates have the time, space and activities they need to make the most of their time in Cambridge. 

You can find out more about Cambridge, our social activities and the congress venue on our other pages.

Health, safety & security (including Covid-19 information)

Photo by Nick Fewings, Unsplash.comThe health, safety & security of our delegates has been paramount in our minds as we organise the 20th congress of our Section as an in-person event.

For full details please see our Health, Safety & Security page.

Our Congress theme

The official theme of this year’s congress is “Public mental health re-imagined: a roadmap towards global equity”. In this very special congress, we invite our speakers and delegates to engage with this theme, thinking about what their perfect vision for public mental health would look like, and how psychiatric epidemiology and social psychiatry should respond to meet that challenge.

Each person’s vision may be unique, but through the similarities that bind our disciplines together, we hope that the conversations, discussions and research showcased at our 20th congress will allow us identify those priority areas to improve public mental health over the next decade.

Beyond our main theme, we welcome abstract submissions from all areas of psychiatric epidemiology, social psychiatry and public mental health. Abstract submission is now closed. To register for the Congress and benefit from our most competitive rates, head over to our registration page.

International plenaries
We are honoured to confirm participation from several internationally-renowned researchers working in the fields of epidemiology, social psychiatry and public mental health across Europe and beyond.
Professor Sir Michael Marmot

Prof. Sir Michael Marmot

Professor Ann John

Prof. Ann John

Professor Peter Jones

Prof. Peter B. Jones

Prof. Inez Myin-Germeys

Prof. Inez Myin-Germeys

Professor Ian Colman

Prof. Ian Colman

Full details of our keynote speakers can be found here. Their outstanding contributions cover a range of topics, including social inequalities in mental health, suicide prevention, adverse childhood experiences, the epidemiology of common mental disorders and severe mental disorders and cutting-edge use of big data and experienced sampling methods to improve population mental health.
45 years & counting: A special seminar on the history of our Section

45 years & Counting: a guide to our Section

Anthony Mann, professor emeritus of Epidemiological Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, KCL                 

– Fri 9th Sep, 12:30 – 13:15  |  Lecture Room 2

As our Section celebrates its 45th year and 20th Biennial Congress, join Emeritus Professor Anthony Mann (local host of the 8th Congress when it was last held in Cambridge in 1996), on a voyage of discovery looking back at the history of our Section as well as considering its future place as a leading global organisation representing the practices of psychiatric epidemiology and social psychiatry.

We are honoured to welcome Professor Mann to give this special talk to our Congress, which accompanies a paper he co-authored on our Section’s history with fellow esteemed psychiatrist Professor Siegfried Weyerer who was unfortunately unable to attend this meeting. The paper has been circulated to delegates in the run-up to the Congress, and is available for download at www.psychepi.org/history.

Professor Mann built a global reputation as a psychiatrist and epidemiologist, working both at the Royal Free Hospital London and later joining King’s College London, succeeding Michael Shepherd as Professor of Epidemiological Psychiatry, in charge of the section of Epidemiology and General Practice. His personal areas of research have been the epidemiology of old age psychiatric disorders, the psychiatry of general practice and global mental health. Beyond his research Professor Mann has made a notable contribution to training researchers from around the world; currently there are 25 Professors of Psychiatry who were mentored or directly supervised by him. Professor Gill Livingston, UCL, commented “Like the best clinical academics, he inspired a generation of researchers and patients. His research is varied, but he is particularly interested in  measuring and describing mental ill health and its connection with physical ill health. His research was often with older people, but also encompassed depression and anxiety and their link with cardiac symptoms, chronic fatigue, medically unexplained symptoms and eating disorders.”

More recently, Professor Mann has divided his time between the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience and the University of Montpellier, where he was appointed Associate Professor.

You can read and download the accompanying paper by Professors Mann & Weyerer here.  

Mental Health Question Time on Social Inequalities in Mental Health

An exclusive panel discussion on:

Priorities for action to reduce & remove social inequalities in risk and outcomes of mental health disorders

We are thrilled to host an exclusive in-person roundtable discussion, brought to you in conjunction with The Mental Elf, UCL Division of Psychiatry and The Lancet Psychiatry, and live-streamed to a global audience via The Mental Elf’s YouTube channel.

Chaired by Prof. Praveetha Patalay from UCL, this roundtable event will give delegates the chance to hear from leading experts from academia, clinical psychiatry, by lived experience, public policy and the charitable sector about priorities for action to reduce and remove social inequalities in mental health. We’ll also be asking what epidemiology, social psychiatry and public mental health can and should contribute to this space. In-room delegates, and those online, will get the chance to put their burning questions to our panelists, so get your thinking caps on! 

Visit our MHQT page to find out full details of this very special event.

Early Career Research focus

Students around a table on laptopsAt #EPAPsyEpi2022 we will showcase outstanding research conducted by Early Career Researchers [ECR] in our fields to help ECRs move towards academic independence. We will do so in innovative ways, including hearing from ECR keynote speakers, ECR prizes, rapid-fire oral presentations to give ECRs more chance to present their work in an oral format, and ECR-specific social and networking events.

For students, we have kept fees as low as possible to enable you to attend the congress at an early career stage. We will arrange ECR social activities to support peer networking during the congress. We will run 2 competitions for ECR, with prizes awarded for the best rapid-fire oral and poster presentations at #EPAPsyEpi2022.

Invited ECR keynotes

We are delighted to showcase some of the best emerging early career researchers working in the fields of psychiatric epidemiology and social psychiatry. 

Full details of our keynote speakers can be found here. We are committed to supporting our ECR community through various activities and events, including excellent value registration fees for students, social programme and rapid-fire talks

ECR Keynote Prize Winners

The EPA Section of Epidemiology & Social Psychiatry has a long tradition of supporting junior researchers in our fields. This year, in addition to our invited ECR keynote speakers and Rapid-Fire ECR talks, we jointly awarded the ECR Prize to two ECR* members whose submitted abstracts were rated joint highest by our Scientific Committee.

We congratulate Dr Linda Ejlskov (Aarhus University, Denmark) and Dr Rachel Latham (King’s College London) on this award. As part of their prize, they will present a 15 minute ECR keynote in our main auditorium (the Concert Hall) during our Congress. For full details, please see our programme

*We define ECRs as students or postdoctoral researchers within 5 years of the award of their doctoral degree. Proof of status will be requested.

ECR Rapid-Fire Talks

Rapid-fire talks provide Early Career Researchers  (ECR*) the opportunity to give a concise oral presentation of their work at an international meeting, as an alternative to a poster.

They are a great way to learn about new research in a short period of time. There will be two parallel rapid-fire sessions taking place during the Thursday + Friday lunch interval, each with 10-11 speakers given 5 minutes each (4 mins + 1 min for questions) to present their work. We encourage delegates to show their support of ECRs by participating in these sessions.

We will award a prize to the best ECR Rapid-Fire talk during our Congress. The prize winner will be announced at our Closing Ceremony on 10 September. 

*We define ECRs as students or postdoctoral researchers within 5 years of the award of their doctoral degree. Proof of status will be requested.

Poster Prize

Posters will be displayed in the Recital Room at our Congress venue, West Road Concert Hall. We will have over 50 posters on display, with around half shown on Thursday and Friday, respectively. Posters will be on display all day, with the main viewing taking place during the lunch interval. Poster presenters are asked to stand by their posters during their assigned session at lunch. See the programme for further details. 

Members of the Scientific Committee will be visiting all posters during the Congress, with a prize awarded to best poster. The prize winner will be announced at our Closing Ceremony on 10 September. 

Participation by people with lived experience

People looking at a laptopWe are pleased to invite people with lived experience of mental health problems & carers to attend our congress at a discounted rate.

This opportunity would be suitable for people who wish to learn more about the role social psychiatry and epidemiology play in mental health research. Psychiatric epidemiology and social psychiatry are fundamentally rooted in improving public mental health, and to do so requires our science to be informed by the needs, ideas and views of the wider public, including people with lived experience.

For people with lived experience or their carers who wish to apply for a discounted delegate place at the congress, click here for more details. 

At this year’s congress, we will include abstract submissions of relevant research from people with lived experience. In addition, all participants who submit research to the congress will be required to write a summary of their work suitable for the general public. 

We have included people with different backgrounds and experiences on our Local Organising Committee and Scientific Committee.

Social activities & networking opporutnities

Punting on the River CamWe hope that the historic academic city of Cambridge will provide delegates with a relaxing, inspiring and picturesque environment to come together during our Congress.

After two years of highly restricted social gatherings, we look forward to meeting face-to-face again, in a safe environment to celebrate the successes of our research community. Our 20th congress promises an opportunity for delegates from across the world to reconnect in-person, celebrate our achievements, and develop new, strong social connections. 

We’ve arranged a number of social activities, ranging from our welcome reception to punt tours to break-out spaces in our state-of-the-art conference venue, and our celebratory congress dinner, ensuring delegates have the time, space and activities they need to make the most of their time in Cambridge. 

You can find out more about Cambridge, our social activities and the congress venue on our other pages.

COVID-19 safety

Photo by Nick Fewings, Unsplash.comThe safety of our delegates has been paramount in our minds as we organise the 20th congress of our Section as an in-person event.

We have developed a COVID-19 policy to minimise risk to delegates attending our congress, which complies current national government guidance on large gatherings. Briefly, we will:

  • Request that all delegates are fully vaccinated*
  • Ask delegates to take daily lateral flow tests (also known as Rapid Antigen Tests)
  • Provide hand-sanitising stations throughout the congress venue & social spaces
  • Ask delegates to wear face masks during congress sessions (unless presenting)*
  • Have facilities to allow outdoor coffee breaks, lunch and drinks receptions (weather-permitting)
  • Follow the enhanced safety measures put in place by the congress venue

*Unless exempt. Sunflower pins will be available from the congress reception for those who wish to indicate non-verbally to other delegates that they have a medical exemption from these requirements.

Please see our dedicated COVID-19 page for full details and our refund policy page for more information.

World Suicide Prevention Day 2022

World Suicide Prevention Day 2022On Saturday 10th September, we are pleased to promote World Suicide Prevention Day 2022, which coincides with the final day of our 20th Congress. To mark this occasion, we are promoting the latest epidemiological research in suicidality and self-harm, including through our closing plenary from Prof. Ann John (Swansea University, UK). We’ll also be featuring an ECR Keynote Prize talk on self-harm from Dr Linda Ejlskov (Aarhus University, Denmark) and a parallel oral session on Progress in the epidemiology of suicidality & self-harm.

Visit our World Suicide Prevention Day 2022 page to see full details of our planned activities on Sat 10th September.