OIt is my pleasure to announce some excellent news that we encourage you to take part in : the latest edition of the Feature Forums, focusing on the use of antidepressants in treating bipolar depression; and the registrations opening for the WFSBP Congress in Santiago.

We also wish to thank the representatives of our Member Societies that have made themselves available to attend the meeting organised in Paris mid September, and look forward to establishing a closer collaboration with them in the future and for many years to come.

Finally, in case you attend the Congress of the Asociación Argentina de Psiquiatras-AAP (October 3-6, 2006), we warmly invite you to come visit us at the WFSBP booth at the where we will be available to discuss these developments personally with you and share ideas on the future of our Federation.

Sincerely yours,

Siegfried Kasper, MD
WFSBP President

Treatment Guidelines
WFSBP Task Forces are a privileged platform for the Federation to produce scientific statements meant to help the worldwide community make the best decisions in treating patients. So far, WFSBP Treatment Guidelines have focused on 5 main psychiatric conditions: Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Bipolar Disorders; Schizophrenia; Unipolar Depressive Disorder. Further a Consensus Paper on Biological Markers of Dementia has been compiled.

All the WFSBP Guidelines are systematically published in The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry and are also available on the WFSBP web site to all visitors as a free resource to improve patient care and help overcome psychiatric disorders.

It is the World Federation's intention to keep developing more Treatment Guidelines in the future and advance care all over the globe.

Feature Forums
Authored by expert Heinz Grunze, M.D. (Ludwig-Maximilians Universitaet, Munich, Germany), this month’s WFSBP Feature Forum

“Should antidepressants be used
as a first line treatment of bipolar depression?”

is now live and open to receive your comment and contribution to help provide the answer to this ongoing and often controversial question.

As you will read once you click on the Feature Forums banner below, this month’s Feature highlights just some of the reported and often contradictory findings and Guidelines that raise critical issues. The conversation that you are invited to join today by posting your opinion and thoughts directly in the Forum zone, surrounds perhaps not the current efficacy of antidepressants, but rather their future use and role in treating bipolar disorder.

Whether you agree or disagree, we invite you to share your views, expertise and experience with our community. Only by stimulating this debate can we collectively hope to address this thought provoking question:

For those of you who are as of yet unfamiliar with the Feature Forums debate arena, why risk missing out? Please either click directly on the banner above (or visit and bookmark our website www.wfsbp.org) and select the menu tab "About Feature Forums", for further information. Our community looks forward to reading your contribution as a regular visitor to the WFSBP Feature Forums!

2nd International Congress of Biological Psychiatry, Santiago, Chile (April 17-21, 2007) - Call for Symposia

Visit the Congress web site now and enjoy a valuable discount off the normal fee with the early registration rate until December 15!

Please visit http://www.wfsbp2007.org/ and be the first to have a look at the Congress Preliminary Program!

9th World Congress of Biological Psychiatry Paris, France (June 28 - July 2 2009)

Please mark your calendars and plan to to celebrate the 9th World Congress of Biological Psychiatry in Paris, France, June 28 - July 2 2009.

6th International Forum on Mood and Anxiety Disorders
November 29 - December 1, 2006, Vienna, Austria
www.aim-international group.com/2006/ifmad/

2nd Dual INA-WFSBP Congress on Psychiatry and the Neurosciences
1st European Congress of INA & 2nd Mediterranean Congress of WFSBP
December 7 - 10, 2006, Athens, Greece
www.ina-wfsbp-dualcongress.gr/

WPA Thematic Conference on Depression and Relevant Psychiatric Condition in Primary Care
June 19 - 21, 2007 Granada, Spain
www.wpa2008granada.org/

A complete overview of psychiatry related Congress is available on the WFSBP web site

Contacting WFSBP