Our Spring Conference Schedule

This spring, our Columbia team will fan out across the US and to the other side of the pond to confer, collaborate, and educate on the full range of our clinical and academic interests.

In May, San Diego, California will be home to the annual conferences of both the Society for Biological Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association.

At the meeting of the Society for Biological Psychiatry, this year themed “Networks and Complexity in Biology, Brain and Behavior,” Dr. Blair Uniacke will present a poster on Clinical and Functional Imaging Correlates of Rumination and Obsessionality in Anorexia Nervosa. This poster, done in collaboration with Drs. Joanna Steinglass, Jonathan Posner, and others will provide findings from a recently completed study of functional connectivity measures in adolescents and young adults with anorexia nervosa, as compared to healthy controls.

A group of multi-disciplinary researchers – representing the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and nutrition – will come together for a teaching day at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. Colleagues from Stanford University’s Eating Disorders Research Program will join us for a course on Saturday, May 20^th from 8am-3pm titled, Eating Disorders and Obesity Management for the General Psychiatrist. Psychiatrists and other mental health clinicians who may not specialize in eating disorder treatments will commonly identify eating and weight problems among their patients. This daylong course will provide clinical and research updates to help guide clinicians in the management of these features.

The lectures will include an introduction to diagnosis and evaluation of eating disorders by Dr. B. Timothy Walsh, including guidance regarding the use of the Eating Disorders Assessment for DSM-5 (EDA-5), an app-based diagnostic tool. Dr. Walsh will also present recent neurobiological findings in anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Dr. Evelyn Attia will review medical complications of eating disorders as well as evidence-based medication treatments for these conditions. Dr. Deborah R. Glasofer will discuss psychotherapies for adults with eating disorders. Dr. Kara Fitzpatrick will review avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), a new DSM5 diagnosis. Dr. James Lock will review treatments for children and adolescents with eating disorders and discuss special issues that affect younger patients with these challenging conditions. Dr. Laurel Mayer will speak on the presentation and evaluation of obesity for the psychiatrist and discuss effective treatment strategies for obese psychiatric patients. Dr. Janet Schebendach will discuss nutritional management of eating disorders.

Next up is the June International Conference on Eating Disorders (ICED), the annual meeting of the Academy for Eating Disorders. This year’s theme in Prague, Czech Republic: Diverse Perspectives, Shared Goals. The ICED describes itself as “the premier gathering place for professionals and advocates engaged in research, treatment, and prevention of eating disorders. Each year, ICED attendees, faculty, supporters and exhibitors create a unique, inspiring and intense environment for education, training, collaboration and dialogue.”

Columbia’s Dr. Joanna Steinglass will present An Overview of New Research into Food Choice and Habit Formation and the Effect Seen in the Brain on Saturday, June 10^th, during the plenary session 9:00am-10:45am. She will speak about approaches to study of anorexia nervosa that can link brain and behavior (including decisions about what foods to eat), and perhaps open new avenues of investigation for treatment.

At ICED, fellow participants in NY State’s Comprehensive Care Centers for Eating Disorders will join us:

• Our Metropolitan CCCED colleagues, Drs. Sean Kerrigan and Tara Deliberto from Weill Cornell Medicine & New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Westchester Division, will present on Using & Developing Technology to Improve the Treatment of Eating Disorders Worldwide on Thursday, June 8^th, between 4:15 pm-5:45pm. They will review influential research projects on telemedicine in the treatment of eating disorders and discuss its application through a new technological platform, NYP On Demand, currently in use at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
• Dr. Richard Kreipe, a colleague from our CCCED network (Western New York District) and the University of Rochester Medical Center will speak at the plenary session on Friday, June 9^th between 8:30 am-10:15 am. His presentation on the Identification and Treatment of Atypical Eating Disorders in the Clinic will provide an overview of atypical eating disorders presentations in young children, and highlight recent research along with case examples describing this population.

We know conference schedules tend to be packed, but we hope to see you there, to answer any questions you might have about our Center and learn more about the work you’re doing in the field.

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