Mental health issues affecting New Zealanders will be discussed in Queenstown this week.
One workshop will be dedicated to those affected by the Christchurch earthquakes.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists conference will be held at the Millennium and Copthorne Hotels from tomorrow through to Friday.
There will be professionals from New Zealand, Australia and New York at the conference.
Experts will discuss childhood trauma leading to health problems later in life.
Questions about whether it is the trauma or the memory of it that leads to later problems will be looked at in detail.
Prof Sandy McFarlane, from the University of Adelaide, will look at traumatic stress suffered by those who have done war service.
Prof Sarah Romans will give a lecture on "Mood and the menstrual cycle".
Otago University's Dr Erik Monasterio will examine the personality characteristics of participants in mountaineering and base jumping, to determine whether there is a particular profile associated with risk-taking in sport.
A lecture on clinical and neurobiological predictors of suicidal behaviour will be taken by Prof John Mann, of the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
There will also be talks from Prof Peter Ellis, Dr Cameron Lacey and Prof Anthony Dowell, all of Otago University.
A welcome will be held at 9am at the Millennium Hotel.
This will be followed by Des Gorman's opening lecture on the rescue of psychiatry.
