This application seeks funding for scientific presentations at the 26th, 28th, and 30th Annual Meetings of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) to be held in Montreal (November 4-6, 2010), Los Angeles (November 1-3, 2012) and a site to be determined (November, 2014). We will replicate the successful model used in our current NIMH-funded conference grant. Each meeting has a core of scientific programming of basic and clinical science addressing important traumatic stress issues. The prevalence of exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs) such as child maltreatment, interpersonal violence, disasters, terrorism, and war is high, and exposure to PTEs increases risk of PTSD, depression, substance use disorders and perpetration of violence. Programming at the meetings will address barriers to better traumatic stress research and translation of clinical research to clinical practice that include: 1) fragmentation with respect to the types of PTEs studied;2) lack of integration of traumatic stress research that incorporates genetic, molecular, behavioral, psychological, and public health levels of analysis and perspective;3) failure to consider the developmental impact of PTEs experienced during childhood on risk for PTSD given exposure to PTEs occurring at later points during the lifespan;and 4) poor translation of basic science research to clinical research and of clinical research to clinical and public health practice.
Specific aims are to: 1) organize annual meetings that engage research, clinical practice, and policy audiences in discussions about genetic, molecular, behavioral, psychological, and social influences on risk, resilience, prevention, and treatment of PTSD and related disorders in an effort to encourage development of better research and improved care;2) integrate knowledge from these different perspectives and levels of analysis to improve scientific knowledge and scientifically informed clinical practice;and 3) disseminate information about key meeting themes and presentations to the scientific community via annual special sections in the Journal of Traumatic Stress. Under the direction of the P.I. and a Project Coordinating Committee, 20% of the content of the 2010, 2012, and 2014 Annual Meetings will be devoted to these issues. Keynote speakers, plenary speakers, and other presentations will be selected to insure that there is adequate programming of this type. Exemplary presentations will be summarized on the ISTSS website, and a special section based on these presentations will be published in JTS each year. The Coordinating Committee will insure that the program includes women and traditionally underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities. Survey feedback from meeting participants, data on media coverage, and citation data on articles published in Special Section of the JTS will be obtained. Note: Consistent with the new NIMH policy on conference grants, we will use the additional grant funding to achieve a fully sustainable annual meeting that incorporates program enhancements made possible by the grant so that no additional requests for NIMH conference grant funding will be necessary.
The proposed presentations within the 2010, 2012 and 2014 ISTSS annual Meetings are designed to address several barriers to improved traumatic stress research and clinical practice that include: 1) fragmentation with respect to type of potentially traumatic events (PTE) studied;2) lack of integration of traumatic stress research that documents genetic, molecular, behavioral, psychological, or social findings or import to the field 3) failure to consider the developmental impact of PTEs experienced at different points in the lifespan;and 4) poor translation of research findings and their implications from traumatic stress researchers to clinical and public health practitioners. Specific aims are to: 1) organize annual meetings that engage research, practice, and policy audiences in a discussion about the genetic, molecular, behavioral, psychological, and social influences on resilience, prevention, and treatment of trauma-related problems in an effort to educate these disparate audiences and to encourage the development of innovative treatment and research;2) integrate knowledge from genetic, biological, neuroscience, psychosocial, and public health perspectives to improve scientific knowledge and scientifically informed clinical practice and advocacy;and 3) disseminate information about key meeting themes and presentations to the scientific community via an annual special issues of the Journal of Traumatic Stress (JTS). This application seeks continued funding for a conference grant.
