The reclassification of PG as an addictive disorder is under debate for ICD-11. Data on psychiatric comorbidity and family history might provide the basis for a well-informed decision.

We compared 515 male pathological gamblers from inpatient treatment units with 269 matched controls. Patients were diagnosed by experienced clinicians. In a random sample of 58 patients clinical diagnoses were validated through SKID 1 interviews [1].

88% had a comorbid diagnosis of substance dependence (nicotine dependence 80%, alcohol dependence 28%). Only 1% of the gamblers had an impulse control disorder diagnosis. Compared with controls first degree relatives were more likely to suffer from alcohol dependence (27.0% vs. 7.4%), PG (8.3% vs. 0.7%) and suicide attempts (2.7% vs. 0.4%).

In addition to recent papers on the neurobiology (Fauth-Bühler et al., 2016) and genetics of gambling [2,3], our findings support the classification of PG as behavioural addiction in the ICD-11 [4].

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

In the past decade, neurobiological research on pathological gambling has flourished. Based on neurobiological similarities between pathological gambling and substance use disorders and similarities in genetics, diagnostic criteria, and effective treatments, pathological gambling was the first behavioral addiction to be included in the DSM-5 within the revised category Substance-related and addictive disorders.

In this presentation novel findings from gambling research in our research group focusing on the role of impulsivity, anticipation towards monetary outcomes, and the interaction between stress and cue reactivity will be presented, with a focus on new functional MRI results. An overview will be given on the concepts of impulsivity and compulsivity in pathological gambling and relevant neurocognitive and neuroimaging findings. Implications of neurobiological research for novel intervention research, such as in neuromodulation studies and personalized medicine will be highlighted.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Internet gaming disorder appears to be associated with self-concept deficits and increased identification with one's avatar. For increased social network use, the few existing studies suggest striatal-related positive social feedback as an underlying factor. Furthermore, few study findings indicate that internet addicts generally have problems in emotional inhibitory control processing.

Pathological and addicted internet gamers as well as social network users were compared with healthy controls regarding psychometric and neurobiological measures of self-concept-related characteristics, avatar identification and emotional inhibitory control processing.

Psychometric results indicated that both subgroups showed higher self-concept deficits compared to healthy controls. Neurobiologically, different brain activation patterns were observed in the subgroups during self-knowledge retrieval and inhibition of emotional stimuli. Furthermore, addicted internet gamers showed a higher identification with the own avatar, mirrored in an increased left angular gyrus activation, a region functionally associated with identification processing and feelings of empathy.

These findings provide a starting point for the deduction of specific psychotherapeutic treatment approaches for addicted internet gamers and social network users.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Recent technological innovations have led to a proliferation of mobile and smartphones, which have become the cornerstone of modern societies in the 21st Century in terms of communication, notifications and entertainment. Latest research however suggests that with the advantages offered by mobile technologies, smartphone use today may have a significant impact on mental health and well being. Overuse has been associated with stress, anxiety, depression and addiction.

This talk aims to highlight results of current mobile phone addiction research.

To replicate and extend earlier research with regards to psychopathology (depression, anxiety and stress), mobile phone use and age on problematic mobile phone use and addiction.

Individuals aged 16 and above participated in an online study that contained a pool of validated psychometric measures. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling.

Calls per day, time spent on the phone and using social media significantly predicted prohibited and dependent mobile phone use, whereas stress predicted dependent use only. Anxiety and depression did not significantly predict problematic mobile phone use. Findings also revealed that problematic mobile phone use is prevalent across all ages and both genders.

The current results have implications for addiction to using mobile phones, and suggest teachers, parents and affected individuals may benefit from awareness and prevention efforts, respectively.

This talk is based on Kuss, D.J. et al. (2016). Problematic mobile phone use and addiction: The roles of psychopathology, mobile phone use and age. Under review, and was funded by the British Academy and NTU.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

During the last twenty years, international efforts advanced the prevention of psychosis considerably. However, improved predictions as well as well-tolerated and needs-tailored interventions are still required.

Prediction and Prevention of Psychosis

Aims Presenting the current state and new developments, including the European Union funded multi-center project PRONIA with regard to prediction (www.pronia.eu, 7th Framework Programme grant agreement n° 602152) and the German multi-center trial ESPRIT funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF grants 01EE1407 C and 01EE1407I) with regard to prevention.

Results of meta-analyses will be presented and discussed with regard to achievements and challenges. Possible advances by current projects will be discussed.

Pharmacological as well as psychological prevention has been shown to reduce the incidence rate of psychosis in the respective samples considerably. However, particularly social and role functioning, which are prognostically most important, are still an unsolved challenge. Furthermore, new interventions providing an improved tolerability and acceptance by the patients are required. On the level of prediction, a further improvement of predictive validity, particularly with regard to individualized risk estimation is desired.

The achievements in the field of prevention of psychosis are impressive, but further progress is needed. This should be achieved by studies like PRONIA, which aims at improving risk estimation by an advanced assessment concept as well as a sophisticated data analysis, and ESPRIT, which compares the effects of N-Acetylcysteine with an innovative, modular psychological prevention program focusing not only stress and symptom management, but also social cognitive domains.

Consultant to Boehringer Ingelheim lecture fees by Boehringer Ingelheim, Otsuka travel grant by Servier.

The delay between psychosis onset and initiation of treatment (duration of untreated psychosis, DUP) is associated with a poorer treatment response and overall functional outcome. In Europe several early detection and intervention programs have been developed to reduce the DUP and promote Phase-specific Treatments (PsTs).

To review the evidence of a) the effectiveness of European Early Interventions (EEIs) in reducing DUP; b) an impact of PsTs on clinical and social outcomes; and c) EEIs cost-effectiveness.

A literature search in PubMed, PsychInfo, Cochrane and individual journals through cross-referencing was performed. All European Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) designed to reduce DUP and/or to implement PsTs for people with first-episode psychosis were included in the review.

Studies examining early detection programs compared with Standard Care (SC) reported discrepant findings as to their impact on the DUP. PsTs generally reduce hospitalizations and improve service engagement when compared with SC; their impact on other clinical variables, e.g. symptomatology and social functioning, is unclear. Studies assessing EEIs cost-effectiveness in comparison with SC consistently report an advantage for EEIs in the long run.

EEIs, as compared to SC, show several advantages that seem to result in an overall reduction in the cost of care. Therefore, the development of EEI is recommended.

On the other hand, some inconsistencies in the reported results suggest that EEIs should include psychosocial interventions targeting unmet needs of schizophrenia patients, such as cognitive dysfunction and negative symptoms.

SG received honoraria or Advisory board/consulting fees from the following companies: Lundbeck, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Hoffman-La Roche, Angelini-Acraf, Otsuka, Pierre Fabre and Gedeon-Richter. All other authors have declared.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

Childhood trauma increases the risk of a range of mental disorders including psychosis. Whereas the mechanisms are unclear, previous evidence has implicated atypical processing of emotions among the core cognitive models, in particular suggesting altered attentional allocation towards negative stimuli and an increased negativity bias. Here we tested if childhood trauma was associated with differentiation in brain responses to negative and positive stimuli. We also tested if trauma was associated with emotional ratings of negative and positive faces.

We included 101 patients with a DSM schizophrenia spectrum or bipolar spectrum diagnosis. History of childhood trauma was obtained using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Brain activation was measured with functional MRI during presentation of faces with negative or positive emotional expressions. After the scanner session, patients performed emotional ratings of the same faces. Structural MRI was also measured.

Higher levels of childhood trauma were associated with stronger differentiation in brain responses to negative compared to positive faces in clusters comprising the right angular gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and the lateral occipital cortex (Cohen's d = 0.72-0.77). In patients with schizophrenia, childhood trauma was associated with reporting negative faces as more negative, and positive faces as less positive (Cohen's d > 0.8).

Along with the observed negativity bias in the assessment of emotional valence of faces, our data suggest stronger differentiation in brain responses between negative and positive faces in patients with childhood trauma.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

M.A.R. has received compensation as speaker/consultant from Lundbeck, Otzuka, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and Sunovion. He has received research grants from Lundbeck, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and Sunovion.

Maternal mental well being influences offspring development. Research suggests that an interplay between genetic and environmental factors underlies this familial transmission of mental disorders.

To explore an interaction between genetic and environmental factors to predict trajectories of maternal mental well being, and to examine whether these trajectories are associated with epigenetic modifications in mothers and their offspring.

We assessed maternal childhood trauma and rearing experiences, prenatal and postnatal symptoms of depression and stress experience from 6 to 72 months postpartum, and genetic and epigenetic variation in a longitudinal birth-cohort study (n = 262) (Maternal adversity, vulnerability and neurodevelopment project). We used latent class modeling to describe trajectories in maternal depressive symptoms, parenting stress, marital stress and general stress, taking polygenetic risk for major depressive disorder (MDD), a composite score for maternal early life adversities, and prenatal depressive symptoms into account.

Genetic risk for MDD associated with trajectories of maternal well being in the postpartum, conditional on the experience of early life adversities and prenatal symptoms of depression. We will explore whether these trajectories are also linked to DNA methylation patterns in mothers and their offspring. Preliminary analyses suggest that maternal early life adversities associate with offspring DNA methylation age estimates, which is mediated through maternal mental well being and maternal DNA methylation age estimates.

We found relevant gene-environment interactions associated with trajectories of maternal well being. Our findings inform research on mechanisms underlying familial transmission of vulnerability for psychopathology and might thus be relevant to prevention and early intervention programs.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Animal and human studies suggest that individual differences in maternal parenting behaviour are transmitted from one generation to the next.

This study aimed to examine potential psychosocial mechanisms underlying an intergenerational transmission of conceptualization of parenting, including affect, cognition, and parental support.

In a subsample of 201 first-time mothers participating in the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment (MAVAN) project, we assessed maternal childhood rearing experiences, using the Parental Bonding Instrument and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. At 6 months postpartum, mothers completed questionnaires on parenting stress, symptoms of depression, internalization of maternal care regulation and current relationship with mother and father.

We found significant direct associations of maltreatment and rearing by the grandmother with parenting stress at 6 months. These associations were mediated through distinct psychosocial pathways: the association of maltreatment on higher parenting stress was fully mediated through more maternal symptoms of depression (z = 2.297; P = 022). The association between sub-optimal rearing provided by the mother and higher parenting stress was mediated through lower internalization of maternal care regulation (z = -2.155; P = 031) and to a lesser degree through more symptoms of depression (z = -1.842; P = 065). Finally, higher quality rearing by the grandfather was indirectly related to lower parenting stress through positive current relationship with the father (z = -2.617; P = 009).

There are distinct pathways by which early experiences manifest in parenting stress. By understanding the structure of dysregulated parenting, clinicians will have practical information to specifically target maternal motivation, social supports, and depressed mood to disrupt maladaptive parenting cognitions and practices.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

There is considerable variation in the prevalence of breastfeeding, which allows for investigation of factors that influence the initiation and duration of breastfeeding and its association with well being of the mother infant dyad.

To better understand factors that influence (1) maternal breastfeeding status and (2) the “effects” of breastfeeding on mothers and infants.

Participants (n = 170) derive from a longitudinal Canadian study “Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment (MAVAN)”, a project designed to understand the pre- and postnatal influences on maternal health and child social-emotional development. Mothers provided data on breastfeeding status, early life adversity, oxytocin gene and oxytocin gene receptor polymorphisms, depression/anxiety, infant temperament and maternal sensitivity.

Early life adversity associated with a shorter breastfeeding duration and higher maternal depression levels. The relation between mothers’ early adversity and the duration of breastfeeding was mediated by mothers’ depression level, but only in women carrying one variant of the oxytocin rs2740210 gene marker (CC genotype). Mothers who breastfeed at 3 months acted more sensitively towards their infants when they were 6 months old and they in turn had infants who at 18 months showed reduced negative affectivity.

Women who have been exposed to early adversity are “living with the past” and they are, to certain extent, protected or more vulnerable to depression, depending on their genotype. Breastfeeding associated with higher maternal sensitivity, which associated with decreased negative emotionality in the infant at 18 months. Our results help to clarify associations between early life experiences, breastfeeding, and the mother-infant relationship.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Transition into parenthood is a demanding phase in life and exposes the becoming parents to vulnerability for depression, anxiety and stress. Perinatal mental health problems are a major public health issue and many women suffering from depression during their first year after delivery. High levels of stress during pregnancy are associated with adverse psychological and physiological outcomes for the infant and parents. There seems to be an intergenerational transmission of mental health from parent to infant. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of mindfulness intervention during pregnancy in reducing depression symptoms, anxiety and perceived stress in parents-to-be.

Assess whether the mindfulness will improve interaction between mother-infant at 12 months.

Perceived stress scale and Edinburgh postnatal depression scale used to measure stress and depression during pregnancy. Parent child early relational assessment assessed mother-infant interaction.

Inhibited parent-infant relationships were more common in the control group comparing to the mindfulness intervention group. This is in line with previous research on periantal depression, anxiety, and stress, showing more dysfunctional dyads. A depressed mother has reduced capability to be alert to her baby's signals, which is necessary for appropriate parent-infant relationship to occur. The cumulative effect of impaired parent-infant relationship is a “depressed dyad” of mother and infant.

Mindfulness intervention reduced depressive symptoms, anxiety, and perceived stress in pregnant women. At 12 months mother-infant relationship assessment, the mindfulness intervention group dyads showed a more attuned mother-infant interaction.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Unterstützung bei Symposien/Symposia Support.

– Janssen-Cilag GmbH, Neuss

– Aristo Pharma GmbH, Berlin

– Lilly Deutschland GmbH, Bad Homburg

– Servier Deutschland GmbH, München

– Fakultätsmitglied/Faculty Member

– Lundbeck International Neuroscience Foundation (LINF), Dänemark

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

In the last three years, HJM received honoraria for lectures or for advisory activities by the following pharmaceutical companies: Lilly, Lundbeck, Servier, Schwabe and Bayer.

He was president or in the Executive Board of the following organisations: CINP, ECNP, WFSBP, EPA and chairman of the WPA-section on Pharmacopsychiatry.

Financial support by Pfizer, Parexel, SKB, Novartis for smoking cessation studies.