WASAD
The World Association for Stress Related and Anxiety Disorders
We cordially invite you to our 5th International WASAD Congress in Munich, Germany, October 23-25, 2025.
wasad.org
wasad2025.org
- Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone in the WASAD community! 💫❄️🎄 We wish you a peaceful season and a restful end to the year - a time to unwind, reflect, and recognize both the big and small achievements of the past year. We can't wait to see what 2026 will bring! 🎉
- As we wrap up our #WASAD2025 recap, we want to offer a big thank you to the organizing & scientific committees, speakers, moderators, and everyone who joined! Your insightful questions, presentations, and conversations brought the congress and our discussions around stress and anxiety to life ✨
- In addition, we want to thank the @lmumuenchen.bsky.social Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, the @mpi-psychiatry.bsky.social, the Gesellschaft für Angstforschung (GAF), the @stressnetworkch.bsky.social, the @gsrnet.bsky.social, and the Flagship UMZH Stress for collaborating with us! 🙏 🎉
- Congratulations to Mira Erhart, Ronja Brinkmann, and colleagues for their poster award, received for their work exploring “Posterior Insula Coupling with Individual Heart Rate during Acute Stress as a Resilience Marker”! 🫀🧠🏆
- Their findings reveal a stress-specific dynamic in heart rate-insula coupling, with the posterior insula showing a stress-dependent negative association with heart rate uniquely during a task that robustly modulates cardiovascular arousal.
- Congratulations to Anita Meinke and colleagues for winning one of our poster awards, with their poster “Change in the association between mental health and problematic internet use in adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic”! 📱🏆
- In their research, they explored how associations between mental health variables and problematic internet use (PIU) may have changed during the pandemic.
- Congratulations to @andreasgoreis.bsky.social and colleagues for winning one of three poster awards for their poster titled “Impact of Social Media on Triggering Nonsuicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) in Adolescents: A Comparative Ambulatory Assessment Study”! 📱💬 🏆
- In comparing adolescents with and without a history of NSSI, they showed that for adolescents who engage in NSSI, negative events on social media were more strongly associated with perceived stress, negative affect, and NSSI urges than real-life negative events.
- However, NSSI events during the sampling period were mostly triggered by real-life events. These results underscore the need for targeted interventions addressing online interactions to mitigate NSSI behaviors and improve adolescent mental health.
- In his keynote lecture, “Treatment of PTSD: State-of-the-Art and Beyond,” Professor Thomas Ehring @thomasehring.bsky.social, Chair of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Treatment at LMU Munich @lmu-klips.bsky.social, offered an overview of current evidence-based interventions for PTSD and CPTSD.
- In addition, he outlined promising future directions for the treatment of these trauma-related disorders, for example by using dynamic indicators for treatment planning to identify the optimal timing for trauma-focused interventions.
- Keynote Lecture 4/5: Professor Dr. Peter Zwanzger is Medical Director of the kbo-Inn-Salzach Hospital, a teaching hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (@lmumuenchen.bsky.social).
- His main clinical and research focus is on neurobiology, psychopharmacology and psychotherapy of depression and anxiety disorders, neurostimulation, E-mental Health and Virtual Reality (VR).
- At #WASAD2025 he primarily addressed the latter with his insightful keynote on "Virtual Reality in anxiety – perspectives and limitations".
- “Is there a conductor for the orchestrated stress-induced interaction between brain and heart?” This central question guided the keynote lecture delivered by Karl-Heinz Ladwig, Professor of Psychosomatic Medicine and Medical Psychology at the Technical University of Munich (@tum.de).
- Swipe through the photos above for a glimpse into his exploration of the brain-heart connection! 💥🧠🫀.
- The second keynote lecture of #WASAD2025 was held by Dr. Jan Deussing, Head of the Molecular Neurogenetics research group at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (@mpi-psychiatry.bsky.social) in Munich, Germany.
- His lecture, “Decoding the impact of genetic risk factors and stress exposure on psychiatric disorders,” offered valuable insights into his research on gene–environment interactions, neuropeptide pathways, and other stress-related disease mechanisms. 🧬🧠
- “Complete freedom from stress is death.” – Hans Selye Highlight of the Opening Ceremony was the Hans Selye Lecture, delivered by Brenda Penninx, Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, on the topic “Towards Reducing the Public Health Burden of Anxiety Disorders.”
- In her lecture, Professor Penninx shared findings from her research on the prevalence of anxiety disorders, discussing potential reasons for their apparent increase, strategies to alleviate their burden, and the functional component of stress.
- Thank you all for sharing your impressions of #WASAD2025 during and after the Congress! It was wonderful to see the event reflected through your words and photos. In the next few posts, we’ll take a moment to look back and recap some highlights 🔆
- First off: #WASAD2025 in numbers! 📊 👉 In total, 227 researchers, clinicians, and psychologists from 19 countries attended the Congress. The top countries of origin were: 🇩🇪 Germany 🇨🇭 Switzerland 🇦🇹 Austria …followed closely, however, by 🇨🇿 the Czech Republic.
- 📊 The scientific program included: 🔹 5 keynote lectures 🔸 15 plenary sessions... 🔹 ...with a total of 61 presentations 🔸 50 on-site posters 🔹 and 5 ePosters!!
- Reposted by WASAD🔔 Part 7 in our #WASAD2025, @wasadorg.bsky.social, series: @markusforamitti.bsky.social presented his poster: “Modulating Stress through Sound: The Effects of Historical Metallic Idiophones on Human Responses.”
- Reposted by WASAD🎨 Part 6 in our #WASAD2025, @wasadorg.bsky.social, series: Dr. Anna Fekete presented her poster “Exploring the Impact of Art on Pain and Stress: Multimodal Art and Music Enhance Pain Tolerance, but Do Not Influence Autonomic and Endocrine Markers.”
- Reposted by WASAD🫠Part 5 in our #WASAD2025, @wasadorg.bsky.social, series: @markusforamitti.bsky.social presented his talk “Regulating Collective Emotion Through Music: Diachronic Analysis of Stress, Sentiment, and Complexity in Lyrics (1973–2023)” in the Everyday life stress session.🙃
- Reposted by WASAD⏳Part 4 in our #WASAD2025, @wasadorg.bsky.social, series: @celinebencker.bsky.social presented her talk “Trajectories of everyday life stress across the menstrual cycle” in the Everyday life stress session.
- Reposted by WASAD🧬 Part 3 in our #WASAD2025, @wasadorg.bsky.social, series: Dr. Nida Ali presented her talk “Stress biomarkers in saliva” in the Biomarkers and novel therapeutics for stress-related and anxiety disorders session.
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- Reposted by WASAD🎶 Part 2 in our #WASAD2025, @wasadorg.bsky.social, series: Dr. Anna Fekete presented her talk: “The biopsychological mediation model of music on health – Implications for treatment of stress-related disorders” in the Optimized therapy for stress-related disorders session.
- 🎉 It’s a wrap! Three amazing days of fascinating research, inspiring presentations, and lively coffee-break discussions are behind us! A huge thank you to everyone who joined, showcased their work, and contributed to making #WASAD2025 such a memorable event. Until next time! 💙🧡💙
- Reposted by WASAD🔬Part 1 in our #WASAD2025, @wasadorg.bsky.social, series: Nadja Plumbaum presented her talk “A digital stress management intervention tool – EPIGRAM” in the Digital interventions session.
- Reposted by WASAD🌎🧬The 5th International World Association for Stress Related and Anxiety Disorders Congress, "Uncertainty in Times of Change: A Lifecourse Approach to Stress and Anxiety", was held in Munich and opened by Urs Nater. We will share our highlights in our upcoming series 🎉 @wasadorg.bsky.social
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- Reposted by WASADExcited for my talk at #WASAD2025! I’ll share some initial findings from my ongoing study, focusing on the trajectories of everyday life stress across the menstrual cycle and how they relate to premenstrual symptoms ✨ I’ll present at 10:15 at lecture hall 2. Come by! :)
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- It's almost time... #WASAD2025 starts tomorrow! 🎉 We'd love to see all your contributions here on Bluesky. So feel free to use the hashtag #WASAD2025 or tag us @wasadorg.bsky.social if you're posting about the Congress! We're excited to follow along and repost!
- P.S.: Can't attend in person but still want to explore some of the posters? You can already browse the ePosters on our website: 👉 wasad2025.org/poster/
- Reposted by WASAD🌍 We are excited for the 5th International World Association for Stress Related and Anxiety Disorders (WASAD) Congress in Munich! 🎉 @wasadorg.bsky.social Check out our oral presentations below and don’t miss us at the poster session! 📊 @celinebencker.bsky.social @markusforamitti.bsky.social
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- New in the #WASAD2025 scientific program! 📅 💼 „Everyday Life Stress“ @celinebencker.bsky.social will start off this plenary, chaired by Urs Nater and Andreas Schwerdtfeger with her engaging presentation on the trajectories of everyday life stress across the menstrual cycle ♀️👩
- Up next, Lydia Kogler will share insights on how social stress, the cortisol awakening response, and sex differences influence hippocampal and amygdala volume. ⏰🧠
- Then, @markusforamitti.bsky.social will follow up with a fascinating exploration of how music helps regulate collective emotion in his talk: "Regulating Collective Emotion Through Music: Diachronic Analysis of Stress, Sentiment, and Complexity in Lyrics (1973–2023)" 📝🎶
- Last but definitely not least, Andreas Schwerdtfeger asks the question: "Does the heart know best?" In his talk, he evaluates the effectiveness of just in time interventions triggered by heart rate variability to relieve stress 🫀📲
- Reposted by WASADLooking forward to contributing to this plenary session at #WASAD2025 in Munich on October 25 and to inspiring discussions!
- New in the #WASAD2025 scientific program! 📅 💼 „Everyday Life Stress“ @celinebencker.bsky.social will start off this plenary, chaired by Urs Nater and Andreas Schwerdtfeger with her engaging presentation on the trajectories of everyday life stress across the menstrual cycle ♀️👩
- 📢 Great News!! The scientific program for #WASAD2025 “Uncertainty in Times of Change: A Lifecourse Approach to Stress and Anxiety,” is now complete. The topics include prevention, mental health, psychocardiology, and numerous others! Explore the full program here: 👉 wasad2025.org/scientific-p...
- ⏳ Deadline approaching! Have you submitted your abstract for poster or e-poster presentations yet? Don’t miss your chance to showcase your work and connect with other researchers! Submissions close on September 15, 2025! 📩 Submit your abstract here: wasad2025.org/registration... #WASAD2025
- 💡 New Plenary at #WASAD2025! 💡 "Boosting Societal Adaptation & Mental Health in a Rapidly Digitalizing, Post-Pandemic Europe" 💻🧠🇪🇺 Chaired by Susanne Walitza & Julius Burkauskas, this session explores timely, critical insights into digital life and mental health in Europe.
- New at #WASAD2025! "Stress and Anxiety in Children and Adolescents" ⏰🧒🧠 This plenary session, chaired by Ellen Greimel & @belindajplatt.bsky.social kicks off with results from an RCT on emotion regulation training for adolescents with major depression, presented by Lisa Feldmann
- 🔍 New #WASAD2025 Plenary Alert! 🔍 "Resilience Processes & Dynamics in the General Adult Population" Discover how daily stress affects youth, explore whether resilience is more of a fixed trait or a dynamic process, and more - from C. Schenk, L. Puhlmann, P. Philippi & @lameine.bsky.social 🧠💫
- Great News! 💡🧠📊 While submissions for oral presentations are now closed, there's still time to showcase your work! 🎉 You can still submit abstracts for poster and e-poster presentations until September 15, 2025! 📩 Submit here: wasad2025.org/registration... See you in Munich for #WASAD2025 ⛰️📍
- 🧠 New Plenary: Perspectives in the Management of Anxiety at #WASAD2025 K. Domschke & P. Zwanzger lead a session on treatment resistance, potential pharmacological targets, the use of D-Cycloserin, biomarkers, and personalized psychotherapies. Insights from Domschke, Zwanzger, Hofmann & Schiele 💊🧬🧠
- 🧠 Stress in Neurological Conditions at #WASAD2025 💡 This plenary chaired by Peter Riederer & Toshikazu Saito explores topics including stress, addiction and cognition (T. Saito), psychosocial and traumatic stress’s cognitive effects (M. al Absi), and new dementia stress reduction strategies! 🧠🔬
- 🌍 Trauma, Migration & Refugees at #WASAD2025 🌍 In this plenary C. Wesarg discusses empathy & war trauma, whereas R. Marheinecke takes on the psychobiological consequences of covert political repression (where the lines between stress and trauma blur). Plus, 2 talks from selected abstracts! 📚💫
- 🔬Molecular & Neural Underpinnings of Stress-Related Disorders at #WASAD2025 💡 Dive deep into stress research with the Max-Planck-Institut symposium! Topics include FKBP5 methylation (N. Yusupov), early life adversity (P. Sämann), and more by Meryl Malezieux and Darina Czamara! 🧠🔍
- 🧪 Biomarkers & Novel Therapeutics for Stress-Related & Anxiety Disorders 🧪 Join Chairs A. Erhardt & N. Ali for a plenary session on novel therapeutics for anxiety disorders (N. Singewald) & blood and saliva-based biomarkers (I. Hovatta & N. Ali), plus 1 not yet selected abstract! #WASAD2025 🧬🧠
- New at #WASAD2025 !! 💊 Optimized Therapy for Stress-Related Disorders Join Thomas Ehring & Gerd Laux in this plenary on understanding & tackling PTSD treatment failure (T. Ehring) and antidepressants in the “real world” (G. Laux). Plus, stay tuned for talks selected from abstract submissions! 🧠💬
