2024 Keynotes & Highlighted Sessions

Keynote Speakers

Confronting Firearm Injury and Its Ripple Effects: Insights and Opportunities from the Field of Public Health 

Firearm death rates in the United States are at near-record levels. Firearm injury has surpassed car crashes to become the leading cause of death of U.S. children aged 1-19. And we are only just beginning to quantify the ripple effect of trauma and stress for survivors, their families, and their communities. This keynote will summarize recent epidemiologic trends in firearm injury the U.S., discuss promising strategies for reducing firearm injury and its aftereffects, and draw attention to promising areas of work to reduce the cycle of injury and fear that is plaguing our nation.

Biography

Dr. Megan L. Ranney is an emergency physician, researcher and national advocate for innovative approaches to public health. She joined Yale in July 2023 as the Dean of the Yale School of Public Health and C.-E. A. Winslow Professor of Public Health. Her research focuses on developing, testing and disseminating digital health interventions to prevent violence and related behavioral health problems, as well as on COVID-related risk reduction. She has held multiple national leadership roles; received numerous awards for technology innovation, public health and research; and is a leading public voice on urgent topics in health and medicine.

Lifetime Achievement Keynote - Key Concepts, Methods, Findings, and Questions about Traumatic Memories 

This talk will identify common sources of confusion about traumatic memories and spell out how clinical observations have shaped our understanding of the different forms in which these memories present. These observations are then related to key philosophical and psychological ideas about how events can be encoded via alternative visual pathways and experienced with different levels of awareness. Methods needed to investigate traumatic memories are discussed with a view to isolating these processes. Research using these methods shows how intrusive trauma memories and flashbacks differ systematically from ordinary episodic memories, and can be distinguished in the brain functionally and structurally. Other research addresses the nature and reliability of flashbacks, as well as the mental states at the time of the traumatic event that give rise to them. The long-running controversy about whether voluntary memories of trauma are disorganised and fragmented is shown to depend partly on conceptual confusion and has been resolved with new meta-analytic findings. Finally I identify some important questions that offer exciting research opportunities. 

Biography

Chris Brewin is emeritus professor of clinical psychology at University College London. He has conducted research into many aspects of human memory and published influential reviews of the precursors and consequences of PTSD. He is particularly associated with the dual representation theory of PTSD and with the impact of traumatic events on memories, flashbacks, voice-hearing, and identity. He played a major role in designing and implementing the mental health response to terrorist attacks in the U.K., with an emphasis on setting up screening and access to evidence-based treatment. He was an advisor to the American Psychiatric Association over DSM-5 and was centrally involved in revisions to the diagnosis of PTSD implemented by the World Health Organization in ICD-11. His clinical work has focussed on the cognitive-behavioral treatment of complex posttraumatic stress disorder, and his medicolegal work on memory for historical sexual abuse. 

Harnessing Psychedelics for Treating PTSD: Does the Science Support All the Hype? 

Psychedelics are becoming increasingly popular among researchers, clinicians, and patients. Psychedelics, such as MDMA, have been shown in preclinical and clinical studies to reduce fear and PTSD symptoms. Despite this, research is in the very early stages. This has resulted in competing views over whether it is premature to be implementing psychedelics in treating PTSD. This panel comprises four speakers who will debate the merits and limitations of the current evidence for psychedelics. 

Featured Sessions

Traumatic Stress and Epigenetic Aging 

In the last few years, efforts to understand the impact of stress, trauma, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on health and aging processes have begun to focus on epigenetic processes/signatures. Profiles of DNA methylation (DNAm) have been linked to acceleration of cellular aging and age-related disease and mortality. Speakers will examine these processes using for very different approaches and samples including a sample of adolescents hospitalized for suicidality, disaster exposed women, multiple cohorts involved in the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium PTSD Epigenetics Workgroup, and a study on childhood trauma and DNA methylation from postmortem brain. 

Nicole Nugent, PhD, Brown University 

Leslie Brick, PhD, Alpert Medical School of Brown University 

Erika Wolf, PhD, National Center for PTSD & BUSM 

Janitza Montalvo-Ortiz, PhD, Yale School of Medicine 

Alicia Smith, PhD, Emory University School of Medicine 

The Sugira Muryango Intervention: Implications for Mitigating the Impacts of Intergenerational Trauma and Mechanisms for Bringing Evidence-Based Programs to Scale 

Three presenters and a discussant will present findings from three pillars of the Sugira Muryango (SM) or “Strong Families” program. SM builds parental knowledge on nurturing care and violence reduction to help families living in extreme poverty provide safe and healthy home environments in post-genocide Rwanda. SM uses in-home delivery to teach skills that help families mitigate impacts of traumatic stress, including conflict resolution, problem-solving, and alternatives to harsh discipline and IPV. SM’s evidence base includes longitudinal effectiveness and sibling spillover studies investigating the long-term impacts of SM on families who received the intervention (2018-2019), an expansion project which reached almost 10,000 families through the PLAY Collaborative implementation strategy (2021-2023), and the SM Digital Dashboard as a creative form of supervision and tool for monitoring quality assurance among interventionists. Results from these projects show effectiveness and scalability of SM, paving the way for integration into existing government structures. Presenters will discuss findings from each pillar of the SM program, discussant and co-PI Dr. Vincent Sezibera will tie together lessons learned, expanding implementation strategies to scale SM, and policy implications for implementing home-delivery programs in low-resource and post-conflict settings. 

Vincent Sezibera, PhD, National Univ of Rwanda 

Sarah Jensen, PhD, Boston Children's Hospital 

Celestin Twizere, PhD, University of Rwanda 

Candace Black, PhD, Boston College 

Past Presidents and Founders of ISTSS 

Imagine training, practicing, teaching and conducting research at a time when, as Arthur Blank (quoted in Sandra Bloom’s history of ISTSS (https://istss.org/about-istss/history), describes, " the psychiatric profession's official diagnostic guide [had] backed away from stress disorder” and the condition vanished into the interstices of "adjustment reaction of adult life.” Despite DSM III’s 1980 introduction of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, many clinicians were quick to say that “they still didn’t believe in it” for a variety of reasons: personal, professional, and political. As Figley documented (2001), The Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (sic) was established in 1985 " to advance knowledge about the immediate and long-term human consequences of extraordinarily stressful events and to promote effective methods of preventing or ameliorating the unwanted consequences" (https://istss.org/past-presidents-column-charles-r-figley/). This session brings together Past Presidents and founders of STSS/ISTSS to share perspectives on its beginnings, reflect on challenges faced, and consider directions for the future of traumatic stress studies. 

Harold Kudler, MD, Duke University Medical Center & Durham VA Medical Center 

Charles Figley, Prof Dr, Tulane University 

Yael Danieli, PhD, Group Project for Holocaust Survivors and Their Children 

Alexander McFarlane, MD,Prof, University of Adelaide 

Robert Pynoos, MD,MPH, UCLA School of Medicine 

Lars Weisæth, MD, PhD, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo 

Commemorating the Vietnam War Experience 50 Years On: The Impact and Legacy of Vietnam Veteran Research 

The Vietnam War occurred within a unique sociopolitical era in American history. As the 50th anniversary of the end of this era nears, numerous commemoration events are taking place. In this panel, several esteemed leaders will discuss the transformative impact of Vietnam Veteran research on our understanding of traumatic stress.  Research conducted with this generation of Veterans has informed our understanding of the impact of trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and comorbid psychiatric and medical conditions among men and women across the lifespan. Large population-based cohort studies and treatment outcome studies, as well as research examining specific issues such as chemical exposures and negative homecoming experiences, and Veteran subpopulations such as repatriated prisoners of war and women Veterans, have greatly expanded our knowledge of the etiology, assessment, and treatment of trauma-related disorders. Panel members will speak to their experiences being part of this important body of work, share their perspectives on research-based changes in the field over time, and discuss implications for future work that focuses on the long-term health and well-being of military Veterans around the world. 

Anica Pless Kaiser, PhD, National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System 

Terence Keane, PhD, VA Boston Healthcare System 

Kathryn Magruder, MPH,PhD, Med Univ of South Carolina 

Frank Weathers, PhD, National Center for PTSD

The Future of Clinical Practice Guidelines for PTSD : Leveraging Our Knowledge to Improve Updates and Practical Utility for the Global Community

With respect to translational science, the field of traumatic stress has taken the lead in designing PTSD Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs). ISTSS (2021), VA/DOD, (2023), and APA (in process), among others (e.g., NICE, Phoenix) have developed CPGs, some of which have been updated at least once. While there is consistency across guidelines in general procedures and conclusions, specific recommendations about specific treatments vary considerably by methodology (See Hamblen et al., 2019). As we move forward as a field, what lessons have we learned about the development, dissemination, and impact of CPGs for decreasing PTSD in the global community? The panelists and the audience together will explore the strengths, limitations, challenges, and debates of CPGs to create solutions and innovations in future dissemination science. Panelists representing ISTSS, APA, VA/DOJ CPG committees will briefly highlight essential points about the CPG purpose, methods, and conclusions. Then panelists will be invited to reflect upon lessons learned, challenges, concerns, and recommendations for the future. Time will be allocated for audience participation on recommendations, future areas of development as well as general questions. Two panelists per guideline were selected to help represent the breadth of the various guideline groups. 

Elana Newman, PhD, Univ of Tulsa, Department of Psychology 

David Forbes, PhD, Phoenix Australia Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health 

Jessica Hamblen, PhD, National Center for PTSD 

Carmen Mclean, PhD, National Center for PTSD 

Candice Monson, PhD, Toronto Metropolitan University 

Paula Schnurr, PhD, National Center for PTSD 

Lori Zoellner, PhD, Univ of Washington