Presentation by RSU medical student receives recognition at World Congress of Psychiatry

From 13 to 17 November 2024, Dins Mironovs, a 5th year student from the Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) Faculty of Medicine, participated in the 24th World Congress of Psychiatry – a four-day event in Mexico City. Mironovs had the opportunity to participate in sessions, symposia and plenary sessions on topical mental health themes and issues.

The day before the congress, Mironovs had the chance to meet certified doctors and residents from the USA, Mexico, Spain, the Netherlands and other countires, as well as to visit two of the largest and most important psychiatric care centres in Mexico – the Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz National Institute of Psychiatry and the Fray Bernardino Alvarez Psychiatric Hospital.

‘I think the congress was very intense not only for me as a student, but also for residents and certified clinicians, professors and researchers, because over the course of four days, we discussed the latest tendencies in healthcare, preliminary plans for the future, as well as preventive intervention measures to improve mental health worldwide,’ explained the RSU student.

The most valuable lectures, according to Mironovs:

• The lecture ‘Addiction psychiatry and prevention’ by Nora Volkow, Director of National Institute on Drug Abuse of National Institutes of Health;
• A lecture on a global perspective on mental health prevention for young people by Celso Arango, President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology;
• A lecture on EDIT (Equality, Developmental stages, Inclusivity, and Transcultural perspectives) by Danuta Wasserman, President of the World Psychiatric Association.

‘At the Congress, I had the honour to represent both RSU and Latvia on a global scale by showing a three-minute WPA presentation in the competition section, where I was awarded 3rd place by the audience.

It was a fantastic feeling and I felt very proud to realise that I was the only student sharing a podium with professionals delivering presentations on world-class research projects,’

Mironovs reported. ‘However, this was only a warm-up, as I then gave an oral report in one of the free communication sessions on the analysis of a rare clinical case that had previously only been described in literature, not in clinical practice.’