All posts by admin

WASAD 2023 Congress – September 11-13, Zurich, Switzerland

ICOCS is pleased to announce our participation at the 2023 WASAD Congress that is taking place in Zurich, Switzerland from September 11-13.

The topic of this year’s Congress is “Dealing with stress and anxiety in a world of chronic crises: What we can learn from translational perspectives”, and covers a variety of mental health disorders related to stress and anxiety, including ADHD, depression, panic disorders, social anxiety disorders, PTSD, OCD, cognitive dysfunctions and others. The Congress features talks given by several keynote speakers, including the ICOCS secretary, Naomi Fineberg, and ICOCS co-chair, Eric Hollander.

A message from Congress coordinator and ICOCS co-chair, Prof. Susanne Walitza:

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen  

This year the “World Association for Stress related and Anxiety Disorders” (WASAD) is holding its conference in Zurich (Switzerland) on September 11-13, 2023 together with the annual conference of the Swiss Society for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (SGZ).  

The International College of Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (ICOCS) will also join the conference, making this the first time that WASAD, ICOCS and SGZ will hold a joint event on September 13, 2023 and allowing ICOCS to support a national society for obsessive-compulsive disorders.  

Conference Highlights: 

Prof. Naomi Fineberg heads the Center for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) and was very much involved in the Nice Guidelines for the Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders. She will talk about “links between Pathological Media Use and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”.  

Prof. Eric Hollander, Director of Research on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders and Autism at the Albert Einstein Institute in New-York (USA) and a member of the DSM-5 Steering Group on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, will present “inflexible thinking in autism spectrum disorders across the lifespan”. 

Prof. Stefano Pallanti, Professor at the Albert Einstein Institute in New-York (USA) and at the Imperial College London (UK), will discuss the “evidence of PANDAS” (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders associated with Streptococcal Infections).  

In the afternoon, there will be parallel practical in-depth workshops on different topics.  

In addition, the entire WASAD conference from September 11-13, 2023, offers the opportunity to exchange information about the latest research on stress, stress management, and anxiety disorders. 

 We think this is also very helpful in coping with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Internationally renowned experts, societies, and institutions will present new findings and invite you all to share, interact and discuss. 

More information about the Congress, as well as registration details and how to submit a poster, can be found at the WASAD Congress website: https://wasad2023.org/

Orchard OCD Survey on New OCD Treatments

UK Charity, Orchard need participants for their new OCD survey on new or alternative forms of OCD therapy.

This survey will help recruitment for OCD studies and those participating will be vital to the development of OCD treatments, which could help many others in the future.


Those participating must be 18 and over and self-identify as having OCD. They do not need to have an official diagnosis of OCD in order to participate. It will take no longer than 30 minutes to complete.


Below is the link to our survey:
https://redcap.herts.ac.uk/surveys/?s=LETKTCCJPM

Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders under COVID-19 – ICOCS Special Issue

The International College of Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum Disorders is pleased to share a special issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research on Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders under COVID-19. The special issue, edited by Eric Hollander and Michael Van Ameringen, contains 14 papers.

Correlates of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders symptom severity during the COVID-19 pandemic

The impact of coronavirus on individuals with problematic hoarding behaviours

Modulating neuroinflammation in COVID-19 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Media use and emotional distress under COVID-19 lockdown in a clinical sample referred for internalizing disorders: A Swiss adolescents’ perspective

Individual obsessive-compulsive traits are associated with poorer adjustment to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions

An international cross-sectional investigation on social media, fitspiration content exposure, and related risks during the COVID-19 self-isolation period

The impact of COVID-19 on patients with OCD: A one-year follow-up study

Obsessive-compulsive disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic

Stress, academic burnout, smartphone use types and problematic smartphone use: The moderation effects of resilience

Resilience predicts positive mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic in New Yorkers with and without obsessive-compulsive disorder

Parental surveillance of OCD and mental health symptoms during COVID-19: A longitudinal study of Australian children, adolescents and families

The COVID-19 pandemic and problematic usage of the internet: Findings from a diverse adult sample in South Africa

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms among the general population during the first COVID-19 epidemic wave in Italy

First vs second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder: A multicentre report from tertiary clinics in Northern Italy

The full special issue can be found here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-psychiatric-research/special-issue/10HWDNZN9B5

LEARNING TO DEAL WITH PROBLEMATIC USAGE OF THE INTERNET – EBOOK – REVISED EDITION

A book written for the public, edited by the COST Action CA16207 in collaboration with the International College of Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum Disorders (ICOCS) and the International Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders Research Network of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (OCRN-ECNP)’.

In light of the success of the first edition of the companion e-book entitled  “How to deal with Problematic Usage of the Internet”, officially launched during the International Festival of Science and Arts “Raising the Public Voice on Problematic Use of the Internet” in April 2021, after more than a year of work, achieved through the support of the COST Action CA16207 – European Network for Problematic Usage of the Internet, and endorsed by the large number of downloads and numerous requests for translation into different languages, we have decided to create this new, updated, revision based on the suggestions and comments of colleagues and experts in the field as well as other stakeholders including individuals with problematic usage of the Internet and their family members.

In this revised edition of the Companion Book, we have included a wider editorial board, a new chapter entitled “Tips For Individuals With PUI”, and several additional integrations and updates along with an expanded bibliography.

The International College of Obsessive Compulsive Disorders is pleased to be able to offer this resource to you for free.  However, a donation to our organization is appreciated and will allow us to continue to do research in the field of OCD and associated disorders, as well as continue to provide free resources such as this.  If you  have an interest or do research in the field of Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum Disorders, please consider joining us as a member:  https://icocs.org/join-us/membership-registration/

Follow this link to download the eBook: https://icocs.org/product/learning-to-deal-with-problematic-usage-of-the-internet-ebook/

Review of the 17th Annual Scientific Meeting

The 17th Annual Scientific Meeting of the ECNP-OCRN International College of Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders (ICOCS) was held in Lisbon on 1st October 2021. This year for the first time it was a hybrid event, with 17 in-person and 21 remotely attending participants spread across the world. As a brand-new format, it was a great success, conducted according to all preventive measures toward the COVID19 pandemic and allowing the widest possible number of interested people to actively participate.

The main focus of the meeting was on the impact of the COVID19 pandemic and lockdown on patients in particular with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and how to manage them in this period of uncertainty. Firstly, Dr Luca Pellegrini (Early Career Scientist, Hertfordshire, UK) gave a talk and presented new data about the role of obsessive-compulsive traits and rigidity in the general public on adaptation to the release of COVID-19 restrictions (post-lockdown adjustment). Professor Michael Van Ameringen (Hamilton, Canada) and Professor Bernardo Dell’Osso (Milan, Italy) reported clinical data from different OCD tertiary clinics in Canada and in Northern Italy respectively. Their presentations were followed by an audience discussion on, but not limited to, how the restriction and then release phases impacted differently on patients’ clinical symptoms as assessed by the major psychometric scales (YBOCS, HAM-A, HAM-D…). After that followed two fascinating lectures on the topic of neuroimmunology. Professor Astrid Morer (Barcelona, Spain), whose background is in this subject, gave a detailed explanation of the neuroimmune hypothesis of OCD, from a historical and contemporary perspective. She described how the field had moved forward since the discovery of pediatric autoimmune disorders associated with infection with streptococcus (PANDAS) to a broader concept of pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndromes (PANS) as infection-induced autoimmune conditions that disrupt a young patient’s normal neurological functioning, resulting in a sudden onset of OCD and/or motor tics, amongst other symptoms, likely based at least in part on brain-based molecular mimicry. Obtaining a correct diagnosis can be challenging and may be aided by serological tests. The contribution of immune therapies is a matter of ongoing research interest. Professor Morer then went on to discuss how this body of knowledge may help us better understand the relationship between OCD and the consequences of viral infections in the context of the COVID era. This led nicely onto the lecture by Professor Stefano Pallanti (Florence, Italy), who presented new insights into the neuroimmune mechanisms in post-COVID NeuroSyndrome in OCD and afterward that of Prof. Eric Hollander (New York, USA), who introduced novel therapeutics targeting IL-6 proinflammatory Cytokines and T-Cells as a promising treatment undergoing active investigation for autism spectrum disorders that may be of value in OCD.

After the presentations, it was possible to look at the submitted posters that covered a wide variety of interesting topics associated with OCD including the role of microbiota and the epigenetic axis, the association between cannabis use and OCD symptoms, and cyberchondria and other forms of problematic use of the internet as relevant comorbidities in OCD. These are just a few examples of a long and exciting list! Among all the valuable contributions, a poster on a meta-analysis investigating the effectiveness of r-TMS in SSRI-resistant and non-SSRI-resistant OCD subgroups, conducted at University of Hertfordshire (lead author Dr Luca Pellegrini), was awarded the prestigious Herman Westenberg Prize.

At the end of the day, it was time for the Annual General Meeting and activity planning for the next year, during which it was discussed, among many other issues, how to improve the accessibility of the ICOCS website, how to raise awareness of our organisations to encourage new members to join us, and how to update the ICOCS research database. Finally, Professor Naomi Fineberg (ICOCS Secretary, UK) presented an exciting new networked grant application, for competitive submission to the Horizon Europe funding agency. The project intends to investigate the impact of increased digitalization on society, with a specific focus on problematic internet use.

ICOCS at the 60th Annual ACNP Meeting

*Registration is now closed. Thank you to all of our members who attended the meeting.*

Registration is now open for the ICOCS meeting that is being held during the 60th Annual ACNP Meeting in Puerto Rico in December.  We are happy to announce that this will be a hybrid event.  

The ICOCS meeting will take place on Monday, December 6, 2021 from 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm in the Chrysler Conference Room at the Puerto Rico Convention Centre, and members will also be able to join the meeting virtually using Zoom. 


Registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance.  Registration is free for all paid-up ICOCS and OCRN members.  Please email office@icocs.org to register.