We are delighted to be able to offer this Bipolar Spectrum Masterclass ‘Updates on assessment, monitoring, and treatment’ to be delivered by Dr. Rasim Somer Diler, one the of world’s leading experts in this field.  Dr. Diler is Professor of Psychiatry, Medical Director of Inpatient and Co-director of Outpatient Child & Adolescent Bipolar Spectrum Services (CABS), UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital, University of Pittsburgh.

BOOKINGS CLOSED

About the Masterclass

Early and correct diagnosis is critical in youth with and at-risk-for bipolar disorders; however, it can often take up to ten years to correctly identify and appropriately treat bipolar disorders. Subthreshold mood symptoms, comorbid psychiatric conditions, and the new mixed features within depression should be assessed carefully to prevent delayed or incorrect diagnosis. Compared to youth with unipolar depression, youth with bipolar depression were more likely to have severe depression with suicidality, anhedonia, and hopelessness, and had higher rates of comorbid conditions, and lower functioning scores. Advancements in mobile health make it possible to employ technology to improve patient engagement and mood-energy-sleep monitoring; however, there is limited knowledge about how to screen and monitor mood swings in youth and how to weigh risks and benefits of available interventions. Dr. Rasim Somer Diler, medical director of inpatient and co-director of outpatient Child and Adolescent Bipolar Spectrum Services (CABS) at UPMC Western Psychiatric Institute will present at this seminar to cover topics including high risk populations, assessment methods, early diagnosis, and management of bipolar spectrum disorders in youth.

Key learning outcomes

• Identify the core features of mania, depression, and mixed features for accurate diagnosis (e.g. episodicity, elated mood, irritability, functional impairment)
• Differentiate manic, hypomanic, and mixed mood presentations in youth from other common psychiatric diagnoses
• Identify appropriate assessment and monitoring instruments for youth with and at-risk for bipolar spectrum disorders

Who should attend

Whilst open to all the main audience is aimed at clinical specialists, researchers at a mid-advanced level.

About the speaker

Dr. Diler serves as a researcher, clinician and a teacher at the inpatient and outpatient Child and Adolescent Bipolar Services. Dr. Diler’s research has focused on the assessment, treatment, etiology (e.g., disease- and treatment-specific biomarkers) of depressive and bipolar disorders in youth. Dr. Diler has developed expertise in mood disorders and contributed to the field with over 100 peer-reviewed publications and over 90 presentations at national and international meetings, where I served on multiple advisory and scientific boards. Dr. Diler is currently serving as the Principal Investigator for two translational longitudinal imaging studies and site-PI for a multi-site study of machine learning approaches for school violence. Dr. Diler is committed to pursue his research interests in understanding neurodevelopmental trajectories of bipolar disorder and searching for neural markers that can differentiate bipolar disorder early in life.