Philippe Conus
Philippe Conus is professor of psychiatry at Lausanne University, Switzerland. He first specialized in internal medicine before training in psychiatry where he developed a particular interest for schizophrenia. From 2000 to 2003, he worked at EPPIC in Melbourne, where he conducted the FEPOS study with Prof Martin Lambert, based on a cohort of 700 first episode psychosis patients treated at EPPIC between 1998 and 2000. He also developed a specific focus on the early phase of bipolar disorder and affective psychoses and conducted various studies in this domain.
On his return to Switzerland, he started the TIPP (Treatment and early Intervention in Psychosis Program) in Lausanne, a 3-years early intervention program that has treated close to 1000 patients over the years. In this context, he has explored determinants of outcome and tried to identify patients with specific treatment needs. He has also implemented a translational research lab, in collaboration with Prof Kim Do and the Center of Psychiatric Neuroscience in Lausanne, focusing on the role of redox dysregulation in psychosis and on the impact of N-acetyl-cystein in the early phase of psychosis. In 2017, along with Prof Amal Abdel-Baki from Quebec and Prof Marie-Odile Krebs from Paris, he launched the French-speaking branch of IEPA, which holds a yearly online congress focus on clinical strategies of early intervention.
Father of two young adults and married to a German general practitioner who is very sensitive to environmental issues, he became interested in the problem of climate change and its impact on mental health. Convinced of the urgency of the issue and of the role that scientists and health professionals must play to face this problem, he will address in his conference the idea that acting against climate change is a form of early intervention in mental health.