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The conference began on the evening of December 12 with a keynote address by former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani. On each of three days that followed, December 13-15, we had plenary sessions from experts on the neurobiological, clinical, and cultural dimensions of PTSD. At the end of each day, the speakers participated in a roundtable discussion to highlight potential areas of integration and incommensurability between the various viewpoints. Specific information on the content of each day is given below.

  • Keynote Address: Former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani gave a keynote address entitled "Leadership in Difficult Times" on Thursday, December 12, 2002. On September 11, 2002, Mayor Giuliani brought strength and stability to the citizens of New York at a time of great trauma.

  • Day 1 opened with an overview of the phenomenological aspects of PTSD. The first session included presentations on the multiple effects of psychological trauma, the neurobiology and treatment of PTSD, clinical etiology, longitudinal course determinants, and current cognitive behavioral approaches. The second session on neurobiological research included presentations on neuropsychological explanations of fear and anxiety, the biomechanical effects of memory, and neurobiological and neuroethological perspectives on fear and anxiety. The session on cultural constructions of trauma included adaptive aspects of PTSD from an anthropological viewpoint, an exploration of refugees' traumatic narratives, conceptual and analytical lessons from the history of psychotrauma, and a historically informed anthropological examination of current clinical practices and assumptions in the treatment of PTSD.

  • Day 2 included presentations on the interaction between specific genetic polymorphisms and early social environments in shaping developmental trajectories of stress responsiveness, the influence of maternal care and gene expression on vulnerability to affective illness, and the correlation between neonatal stress and PTSD-associated pain syndromes. The panel on clinical issues focused on trauma's effects on the developing self within the contexts of family and social networks; specifically, the impact of the WTC attacks on NYC police officers, and, more generally, the management of social trauma. The cultural session explored the role of religion and spirituality in coping with trauma, an anthropological examination of PTSD in Cambodians following the genocidal reign of the Khmer Rouge, as well as trauma and its relation to culture and politics.

  • Day 3 included presentations on fear extinction and other behavioral "unlearning" processes, such as counterconditioning, that might be relevant for clinical treatment; the neural circuitry of extinction; and fear extinction as an explicit model for the treatment of anxiety disorders in general and PTSD in particular. The clinical and cultural aspects were combined in the final session and examined the personal and political dimensions of remembering and forgetting social trauma.
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