Dear Colleagues,

The DGPPN Congress 2012 will be held under the motto ‘The future of psychosocial medicine’. Various aspects of the field of interaction between mind, brain and body will form the focus of the congress. We want to talk about somatopsychic and psychosomatic interactions and exchange views with neighbouring disciplines in the psychosocial field, in particular psychology and psychosomatics. In this context, we will assess the status quo of activities in the field of psychiatric consultation and liaison so that we can identify areas in need of improvement.

In addition, we will discuss bordering fields of neurology. Thus neuropsychiatry will be used as an example to evaluate neurological competencies in psychiatry and used as a basis to address the question of how the rotation year is organised. Besides organising our field proactively, today it is more important than ever to communicate to politicians the conditions necessary to ensure both care for people with mental disorders and the improvement of psychiatric-psychotherapeutic research. At the congress we want to think together about how we can better explain, advise and anchor our objectives in political decisions.

I hope that this brief preview will motivate you to attend the DGPPN congress from 21 – 24 November 2012 in Berlin.

With best collegial regards

Prof. Dr. med. Peter Falkai
Congress President
President of the German Association for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (DGPPN)