The first workshop of EnGagE took place in Paris on April 11th and 12th, 2019. The main aim was to train the participants to the Principles of Psychiatric Genetic Counselling and Testing and to develop a transdisciplinary shared culture across European countries.
The two days were organized around four sessions. The first session was an educational session from French psychiatrists (Pr Cohen, Dr Bourgeron, Dr Chaumette, Dr Poisson, Pr Bonnot, Dr Laurent-Levinson) about psychiatric disorders with a specific focus on organic disorders related to child, adolescent and adult neuropsychiatric diseases. The second session was dedicated to genetic counselling in psychiatry and Pr Brenda Finucane demonstrated the clinical utility of genetic diagnoses in neuropsychiatry. At the end of the first day, Dr Krawitz presented the Face2gene app for automatic identification of syndromic dysmorphia. Pr Lyonnet imagined the future of genetics. The third session during the second day was related to genetic testing in psychiatry especially to the detection, interpretation of Copy Number Variations. After an educational presentation by the EnGagE working group leader Dr Tammimies, Dr Kirov presented the very recent results from the UK biobank. Pr Anne Bassett gave some clues about the clinical application of genetic testing and counselling in the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. Finally Dr Sebastien Jacquemont exhibited his work on prediction of the rare variants on quantitative traits. The fourth and last session was dedicated to patient perspectives with a presentation by Pr Tauber related to a trial in Prader-Willi syndrome and a presentation by B. Searle of the ressources of “Unique”, a charity supporting people affected by a rare genetic condition.
This workshop was attended by 157 participants from 32 different countries. Networking was encouraged and several opportunities for developing collaborations have emerged.