Insubria hosted the SIP-Lo 2026 Congress on young people and mental health, focusing on new forms of distress, digital environments, addictions and continuity of care

The mental health of adolescents and young adults is undergoing a period of profound transformation, with increasingly complex clinical presentations and needs requiring new approaches to diagnosis, care and continuity of treatment. This was the focus of the SIP-Lo 2026 Congress «Hot Topics in Mental Health», held on Thursday, 1 October, in the Granero Porati Auditorium of the University of Insubria in Varese.

Organized by the Lombardy Regional Section of the Italian Society of Psychiatry (SIP-Lo), the event brought together specialists, researchers and healthcare professionals to discuss the new challenges posed by mental health during adolescence and early adulthood. The aim was to bring together different areas of expertise and foster greater integration among the services and professionals involved in caring for young people.

In recent years, international scientific literature has highlighted not only an increase in the prevalence of emotional and behavioural disorders, but also the emergence of clinical presentations characterized by growing complexity. Individual vulnerabilities, neurobiological factors, relational contexts and social conditions are increasingly closely intertwined, while traditional diagnostic categories can sometimes prove insufficient to describe developmental trajectories characterized by heterogeneous and changing manifestations.

In this context, the digital ecosystem is playing an increasingly important role. Online environments are not merely the backdrop to young people's experiences, but can influence developmental processes, identity formation, the quality of relationships and the ways in which psychological distress is expressed. Particular attention is being paid to exposure to potentially harmful content and to algorithmic mechanisms that may amplify its dissemination, especially among more vulnerable young people.

At the same time, clinicians and researchers are observing conditions characterized by emotional dysregulation, self-harming behaviours, behavioural crises, the use of new psychoactive substances and forms of distress at the intersection of psychopathology, neurodevelopment and environmental context. Growing attention is also being devoted to cross-cutting factors such as sleep, metabolism, inflammation, family relationships and continuity of care in determining mental health outcomes along developmental trajectories.

«Young people's mental health presents us with new, often complex and cross-cutting needs that require us to move beyond fragmented responses. The Varese Congress aims to provide a concrete space for discussion, helping to build shared languages and integrated pathways among the different services involved in care», said Giovanni Migliarese, President of SIP-Lo.

In the face of these developments, the challenge also concerns the organization of services. The creation of integrated care pathways is becoming increasingly important, bringing together Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, Psychiatry, Paediatrics, addiction services, emergency care, families, schools and the wider community, in order to promote early detection of distress, continuity of care and personalized interventions.

The Congress programme addressed new psychopathological trajectories in adolescence and young adulthood, exotoxicosis and new psychoactive substances, neurodevelopmental disorders and emerging challenges in emergency settings. Considerable attention was also devoted to the role of families, integration between Child Neuropsychiatry, Psychiatry, Paediatrics, addiction services (SerD) and emergency services, as well as the impact of digital environments on brain development and identity formation.

Part of the programme was devoted to the discussion of complex clinical cases, with the aim of translating the scientific debate into practical indications for clinical and organizational practice.

«The challenge is not only to recognize changing clinical phenomena, but also to organize services capable of detecting them early and supporting young people without discontinuity during the most delicate transitions. The scientific society can contribute by bringing together expertise and experience and promoting shared proposals», said Bernardo Dell’Osso, Full Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Milan and President-Elect of SIP-Lo.

The choice of the University of Insubria as the venue for the Congress highlighted the value of dialogue between research, education, healthcare and the local community.

«Hosting the SIP-Lo Congress at the University means opening the University to dialogue with professionals, services and organizations that encounter the distress of young people and their families every day. As a professor at the University of Insubria and scientific coordinator of the initiative, I consider it particularly important that education, research and clinical practice engage in dialogue with the local community in order to promote prevention, early detection and continuity of care», said Camilla Callegari, Full Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Insubria and member of the SIP-Lo Board.
 

(In the photograph, from left: Giovanni Migliarese, Camilla Callegari and Bernardo Dell'Osso.)