Professor Johannes Hebebrand, workshop leader and co-organiser of the training day
Dr Konstantinos Kotsis, co-organiser of the training day
9h00 - 10h30: Interactive workshop
Speaker: Johannes Hebebrand
Professor Johannes Hebebrand (MD, PhD) is a professor for child and adoelscent psychiatry, psychosomatics and psychotherapy at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He specilaises in molecular genetics of obesity and eating disorders, endocrine factors in anorexia nervosa and nutritional factors in mental disorders. He is an ESCAP board member and Editor-in-Chief of the European Child + Adolescent Psychiatry journal.
Workshop title: Treatment of patients with anorexia nervosa
Workshop aims: The major goal of this workshop is to introduce participants to endocrine aspects of anorexia nervosa and their implications for the treatment of this eating disorder. In particular, we will focus on the hormone leptin synthesized in adipocytes and secreted into the blood stream. Upon transversion of the blood-brain-barrier, leptin reaches receptors located in several brain regions including the hypothalamus, hippocampus, cerebellum and amygdala. In patients with AN, leptin levels are characteristically subnormal (hypoleptinemia). Upon weight restauration, leptin levels increase and normalize. Based on the hypothesis that alleviation of hypoleptinemia underlies starvation-related symptoms, a small number of patients has been treated with human recombinant leptin (metreleptin). Patients showed remarkable beneficial responses, which set in after a matter of days. Participants of the workshop will get a solid grasp of body weight regulation in anorexia nervosa including determinants of referral BMI and its implications for prognosis. The endocrine aspects serve to illustrate the importance of weight gain in this eating disorder. A particular focus will be on the psychoeducation of acutely ill patients and their parents to boost the motivation to overcome the eating disorder.
11h00 - 12h30: Interactive workshop
Speaker: Franziska Degenhardt
Workshop title: Genetic testing in child and adolescent psychiatry
14h00 - 15h30: Clinical lecture
Speaker: Marco Armando
Lecture title: Clinical high-risk for psychosis model in children and adolescents
