Following the highly successful inaugural BakerIDI Heart and Diabetes Institute Heart and Mind conference in 2008, an encore is to be held, once more in the delightful town of Prato, Italy, in September, 2010. Prato is only 25 minutes drive from Florence. At the inaugural meeting the organizers were pleased to host an international rollcall of delegates, from Canada, England, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, USA and Australia. The 2010 meeting I am sure will also be a stimulating and enlightening international event, surpassing even the first meeting.
The BakerIDI Heart and Diabetes Institute is Australia's highest profile and most productive cardiovascular research institute. The commitment of the Institute to the mental stress - cardiovascular disease concept is evident in our 25 years of research and public advocacy in this field.
The conference will have as its centrepoint the link between psychological medicine and cardiovascular disease, aiming to delineate the relationship between stress, mental illnesses and the development and course of heart disease and hypertension. It will showcase the crucial epidemiology, the mediating neural and other mechanisms, and the pharmaceutical, social and psychological measures applicable to prevention and treatment.
The program promises to provide an instructive and exciting blend of research and patient care elements. The direct participation of internationally renowned scientists and practitioners from the fields of psychology, psychiatry and cardiovascular medicine will ensure this.
Conference Themes:
- Occupational stress links to coronary heart disease and hypertension
- The mediating biology of psychogenic heart disease
- Metabolic Syndrome origins in mental stress
- Genetic and epigenetic contributions to the brain/heart disease nexus
- Triggering of myocardial infarction and lethal arrhythmias by acute mental stress
- Takotsubo ("octopus pot") cardiomyopathy caused by mental stress
- Stress, gender and heart disease
- Depressive illness and coronary heart disease in indigenous populations
- Cardiovascular disease accompanying psychiatric illnesses
- Depressive illness, panic disorder, chronic mental stress, schizophrenia
- Cardiac safety with psychoactive drugs
- Mind-heart interaction with therapy
- Cardiac devices causing anxiety disorders
- Cardiac risk from psychotropic drugs
- Impact of cardiac surgery on cognition and mood
- Psychosocial measures for secondary prevention of heart disease
- Clinical pathways for management of mental illness in cardiovascular disease
- Cardiovascular disease accompanying psychiatric illnesses
- Depressive illness, panic disorder, chronic mental stress, schizophrenia
Professor Murray Esler AM, FRACP, PhD
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
Associate Director BakerIDI Heart and Diabetes Institute
Professor Graham D. Burrows AO KCSJ
Professorial Fellow, Department of Psychiatry of the University of Melbourne and Consultant Psychiatrist at The Melbourne Clinic, Richmond.