Drug Information Association (DIA) Japan - 17th Annual Meeting (November 8-10, 2020 - Virtual Meeting).

As many other conferences held in 2020, the 17th Drug Information Association (DIA) Japan Annual Meeting 2020 was held virtually for the first time due to the COVID-19 crisis. The virtual platform delivered 64 sessions across 3 days and allowed participants to join the sessions flexibly, interactively participate in Q and A and connect with fellows without boundaries. The opening speech was addressed by Hajime Saijo (DIA Japan) to introduce the conference theme "Beyond Innovation" and key sessions featured discussions on future healthcare, the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) 30-year anniversary, the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) town hall, patient-focused drug development and global drug development. This meeting report covers the topics discussed from the programs featuring patient engagement, innovative drug development and new technologies.

Does COVID-19 impact the frequency of threatening events in dreams? An exploration of pandemic dreaming in light of contemporary dream theories.

Ninety-one dreams collected during the Covid-19 pandemic (the epidemic-situation sample) were compared with ninety-one dreams collected before the start of the epidemic (the non-epidemic-situation sample). The dreams were classified according to their content, using methods based on previous studies. The frequency of themes was compared to predictions that would be anticipated by three contemporary theories of dreaming: 1) threat simulation theory (TST); 2) incorporation continuity hypothesis (ICH); and 3) social simulation theory (SST). The epidemic-situation sample dreamed more of threatening events than the non-epidemic-situation sample (supporting the TST) and more of non-aggression threatening events, possibly due to the hyperassociation during sleep. However, the epidemic-situation sample did not show a greater prevalence of illness events in dreams (not supporting the ICH). Additionally, there was no significant difference in social neutral and positive events in dreams between the two samples as would have been predicted by the SST.