Page 3 - ISBD 2018

WELCOME TO MEXICO CITY
On behalf of the Program Committee for the 20th Annual Conference of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders, we would like to welcome you to the vibrant modern capital of Mexico, Mexico City, home of ISBD 2018. As the Chairs for the conference, not only have we both served as Past Presidents of this important Society, but we also both hail from Mexico City, and we are so pleased to introduce the ISBD community to all the cultural and historic offerings of this amazing City.
We have put together a truly special program for ISBD 2018, with some outstanding keynote presentations by recognized leaders in the field and some rising stars. We are proud to open the meeting with a presentation by Kevin Hines, a person with lived experience of bipolar disorder, who will discuss his harrowing experience with the illness, dramatic story of survival and efforts to support others in the wake of a life-changing experience. It is a talk not to be missed. The Opening Ceremony will include our traditional ISBD Awards Ceremony, as well as a bit about the Society and the launch of a brand new philanthropic initiative supporting the research aims of the Society. We will close the evening with a Mexican Fiesta themed welcome reception where our guests will be treated to local food, music and cultural celebrations of Mexico City.
The main days of the meeting will feature keynotes spanning topics from neurobiology, genetics and offspring studies to a novel presentation on “Interrogating Disease Biology Of Bipolar Disorder Using Patient-Derived Cells.” We will close the meeting on Saturday with keynote talk on “Identifying the Origins of Emotional Disorders.” Our distinguished keynote speakers include Prof. Gin Malhi, Dr. Carlos Zarate, Dr. Anne Duffy, Dr. Kathleen Merikangas and Dr. Rakesh Karmacharya. In addition, for the first time, ISBD will have all keynote presentations translated into Spanish for the benefit of the local and regional participants from Latin America.
We are also pleased to be able to host the launch of the new CANMAT-ISBD Guidelines at this meeting and there will be a ticketed pre-conference course offering “A Comprehensive Review of the New 2018 CANMAT and ISBD Guidelines” on Wednesday, March 7th for delegates arriving early to the meeting, as well a more formal CANMAT-ISBD guidelines symposia on Friday, March 9th at 8:30AM. Other highlights include the highly ranked ISBD Task Force symposia from our Targeting Cognition in Bipolar Disorders TF on recommendations for methodology of cognition trials and a symposium for the Pediatric Bipolar Disorder TF on key findings and next actions from the group, among other task force sessions.
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