Celebrating 10 years of the European Journal of Psychotraumatology

ABSTRACT

It is 10 years ago that the European Journal of Psychotraumatology (EJPT) was launched. This was celebrated with a one day symposium on 1 February 2021 with all EJPT’s editors presenting on the state of the art developments in the field of psychotraumatology. The European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS) is proud to have all these speakers together sharing their knowledge on a range of topics within the field of psychotraumatology, from genetics to clinical practice. In this editorial the programme with the presentations is presented, including links to both to short summaries of the lectures and to the online session itself. In line with the Open Access format of the journal, access to the symposium content is free of charge and thus available to all around the world without barriers.

The European Journal of Psychotraumatology (EJPT) has been in existence for 10 years. Last year, in a joint editorial of all editors working for the journal, we reflected on the past decade of psychotraumatology and presented our knowledge gaps to guide future research (Olff et al., 2019). With the symposium in 2021 we are closing a year that would have been – were it not for the COVID-19 pandemic – a festive year with real-life symposia. We ended this year with an online symposium on 1 February 2021 with all EJPT’s editors presenting on the state of the art developments in the field of psychotraumatology.

The European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS), owner of the journal, is proud to bring all these speakers together to share their knowledge on a range of topics within the field of psychotraumatology, from genetics to clinical practice, from developmental trauma to neural networks.

In this editorial, we present the program, chaired by the editor-in-chief together with the newly joined associate editor Prof Dr Soraya Seedat, from Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and highlight the presentations, including links to both the short summaries of the lectures and to the online session itself. This is all in line with the Open Access format of the journal, where access to the symposium content is free of charge and thus available to all around the world without barriers.

Jana Javakhishvili, ESTSS president 2019–2020, opened the symposium with congratulations to the team of editors.

Miranda Olff, founding editor-in-chief of the journal, reflected on the past 10 years of European Journal of Psychotraumatology, and the decade to come, including plans for promoting Open Research (see also Olff, 2020).

In the session on trauma exposure, Ford (2021) presented on ‘Polyvictimization and Developmental Trauma in Childhood’, Armour (2021) on Identifying and characterizing adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in a Northern Irish military veteran population, and Birkeland (2021) addressed ‘Do different potentially traumatic events invoke different kinds of PTSS?’

Neurobiology of PTSD, is a field that is growing exponentially, reflected in the content coverage of the journal, including a call-for-papers for a special issue on ‘Biological mechanisms underlying adverse mental health outcome after trauma‘ (guest editor Mirjam van Zuiden). Here we had three presentations. Amstadter (2021) shared with us the exciting work of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortia on the ‘Molecular genetics of trauma exposure and PTSD’. Lanius (2021) spoke about ‘Restoring large scale brain networks in the aftermath of trauma: Implications for neuroscientifically-informed treatments’. And Bui (2021) addressed developments in pharmacotherapy with ‘Pharmacological treatments for PTSD: Where Are We in 2020?’

In the section on mental health outcomes, Hansen (2021) looked into symptom figurations with ‘Investigating centrality in PTSD symptoms across diagnostic systems using network analysis’. Greene (2021) presented on ‘The dynamic interactions of PTSD symptoms in daily life, linking ESM data to symptoms’. Thoresen (2021) addressed interesting social aspects of the Coronavirus pandemic in her presentation titled ‘Trust and social relationships in times of the COVID-19 pandemic’.

We concluded the day with a session on Prevention and Treatment. Roberts (2021) presented on the ‘Development of expert recommendations for the treatment of PTSD with comorbid substance use disorder’. Ehlers (2021) looked into ‘Processes of change in trauma-focused CBT’. And finally, Cloitre (2021) shared with us her insights on ‘Complex PTSD: Assessment and Treatment’.

The program is presented in Box 1, including links to short summaries of the lectures. The online symposium has been recorded and can be accessed through www.estss.org, in line with the Open Access format of the journal, free of charge and thus available to all around the world without barriers.

Box 1.

Program ESTSS symposium

Celebrating 10 Years of the European Journal of Psychotraumatology Chair: Miranda Olff Co-chair: Soraya Seedat Date: 1 February 2021 Opening Jana Javakhishvili - Opening ESTSS president Miranda Olff (2020) - 10 Years of European Journal of Psychotraumatology Trauma Exposure Julian Ford (2021) - Polyvictimization and Developmental Trauma in Childhood Cherie Armour (2021) - Identifying and characterising adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in a Northern Irish military veteran population Marianne Skogbrott Birkeland (2021) - Do different traumatic events invoke different kinds of posttraumatic stress symptoms? Neurobiology Ananda Amstadter (2021) - Molecular genetics of trauma exposure and PTSD Ruth Lanius (2021) - Restoring large scale brain networks in the aftermath of trauma: Implications for neuroscientifically-informed treatments Eric Bui (2021) - Pharmacological treatment of PTSD: Where are we in 2020? Mental Health Outcomes Maj Hansen (2021) - Investigating centrality in PTSD symptoms across diagnostic systems using network analysis Talya Greene (2021) - The dynamic interactions of PTSD symptoms in daily life Siri Thoresen (2021) - Trust and social relationships in times of the COVID-19 pandemic Prevention and Treatment Neil Roberts (2021) - Development of expert recommendations for the treatment of PTSD with comorbid substance use disorder Anke Ehlers (2021) - Processes of change in trauma-focused CBT Marylene Cloitre (2021) - Complex PTSD: Assessment and Treatment Discussion and Closure All speakers Jana Javakhishvili

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.