Greetings

We have been given the honor of hosting “The 117th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology (JSPN)” in Kyoto. The event will be held for three days, from September 19th to 21th, 2021 at Kyoto International Conference Center.

Although there is a possibility that some sessions cannot be held on-site because of Covid-19, I would like to assure you that all staff members are making every effort to create a meaningful meeting for all participants.

It has been 33 years since the last meeting was held in Osaka International House Foundation hosted by Kansai Medical University when Prof. Masami Saito skillfully chaired the meeting.

The theme chosen for this meeting is “Precious psychiatry bridging between tradition and innovation”

Many mental illnesses have specificity unaccompanied by pathological findings and the belief that
they were endogenous was dominant for a long time. However, recent developments in innovative examinations and treatments are providing clues that will elucidate the pathology. The effect of environmental factors, which have long been considered to play a role, remains a difficult problem.

The conference will take a look at the latest data on heredity and environment, and provide a new interpretation of the relationship between the two. Not only organic diseases like dementia which is regarded as a major problem, but also detailed studies such as refining diagnostic classifications to improve the accuracy of diagnosis and developing treatments to stop progression will be discussed.

The enormous impact of Covid-19 will, of course, bring about unprecedented changes in life and society. Looking at the history of humankind, society has changed dramatically after the outbreak of infectious diseases, and conversely, infectious diseases have spread due to the movement of human beings. There are many examples of this: the Black Death of the 14th century was followed by the flourishing of the Renaissance, which itself saw an epidemic of syphilis; in the 16th century, the Age
of Exploration, smallpox epidemics caused civilizational destruction in Central and South America;
the 19th-century industrial revolution was associated with an epidemic of tuberculosis; and the First
World War was followed by the Spanish flu pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread rapidly all over the world, and its impact on society is likely to be far greater than the damage caused by wars. It will also have immeasurable effects on psychiatry, and raise its profile.

It goes without saying that we will discuss the unprecedented challenges facing humankind, who has created the world as it is today. We will also discuss the overall post-corona response from a psychiatric point of view.