Congrès Français de Psychiatrie · 2026

Agoris analysis · updated October 2026

Key points

• The Congrès Français de Psychiatrie (CFP, French Psychiatry Congress) is the main annual meeting of French psychiatry: a four-day medical congress bringing together psychiatrists, trainees, psychologists, nurses and social care professionals, with training sessions, industry symposiums and a professional exhibition.
• Next edition: the 18th, from Wednesday 2 to Saturday 5 December 2026, at the Palais de la Musique et des Congrès in Strasbourg. The chosen theme is “Politique”.
• Organiser: CARCO, a Paris-based company that provides the general secretariat and technical organisation of the congress. The programme is put together by the CFP board and committees, which bring together the main ways of practising psychiatry in France.
• Annual frequency, in a different city each year: Montpellier in 2021, Lille in 2022, Lyon in 2023, Rennes in 2024, Cannes in 2025, Strasbourg in 2026.
• Hybrid format: two channels are streamed live on the e-CFP platform and sessions remain available on demand until 28 March 2027, subject to the speakers’ agreement.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

The CFP is first and foremost a scientific and continuing education congress, but it includes an exhibition: the breaks in the programme are announced as times to “visit the exhibition and the poster area”, and lunches are free or taken on site with packed meals handed out on some days, which brings attendees back towards the stands several times a day. The organiser describes its industry partners as “the soul of our congresses”.

In its description of the expected audience, the congress lists four families of exhibitors: hospital groups, industry, equipment manufacturers and tech companies. The stands also sit alongside non-commercial players: in 2025 in Cannes, the media outlet La Fabrique des Soignants and Les Maux Bleus shared a space in the heart of the exhibition.

Notable exhibitors

No exhibitor list is published on the official website for the 2026 edition as of 10 October 2026. The site highlights a dated partnership with APPA, a social protection association for hospital and private-practice doctors, which is running a webinar with the CFP on 9 November 2026. To book a stand or a symposium, the industry partners page refers to CARCO’s sales coordination team.

Quality of the audience

The audience is broad. The congress is aimed at hospital doctors, private-practice doctors and trainees in adult, child and adolescent, and older-adult psychiatry, but also at neurologists, addiction specialists, geriatricians and psychopharmacology specialists. It also targets psychologists, neuropsychologists, nurses and advanced practice nurses, occupational therapists, psychomotor therapists, speech therapists, healthcare managers, and directors and administrators of mental health facilities and care homes. Peer support workers, service users and families are part of the announced audience.

Three thematic days widen the audience further, all included in the congress registration: the 9th Nursing Sciences and Paramedical Research Day (JSIRP) and the 9th Support and Medico-Social Action Day (JACC) on Wednesday 2 December, then the 11th Old-Age Psychiatry Days (JPPA) on Friday 4 and Saturday 5 December, in partnership with the Société Francophone de Psychogériatrie et de Psychiatrie de la Personne Âgée.

The organiser does not publish an attendance figure on its website. It does state, however, that the congress newsletter announces 40,000 subscribers, and that 97% of participants report an impact on their practice after the training.

Activities & community

Conference programme

For 2026, the CFP board has selected 6 plenary lectures, 5 Clinical Practice Sharing sessions (Partages de Pratiques Cliniques), 20 Meet the Expert sessions, 7 Debates, 27 Thematic Sessions and 31 Associations Forum Sessions. The organiser announces more than 170 hours of sessions available on demand.

The theme “Politique” is embraced in the editorials of the edition: access to care, breaks in care pathways, patients’ rights, the place of families and of the people concerned, and the effects of social and climate crises on mental health. The preliminary programme of 8 October 2026 also covers clinical practice and therapeutics: psychotrauma, treatment-resistant OCD and neuromodulation, dissociative disorders, antipsychotic dosing, food and mental health, and psychiatric emergencies.

The typical day follows a stable pattern: Meet the Expert sessions from 8am to 9am, thematic sessions in the morning and afternoon, lectures at 11am and 1.45pm, and debates at lunchtime. Wednesday is devoted to the Associations Forum, from 9am to 7.15pm, and to the JSIRP and JACC days, before the opening ceremony at 5.45pm and the inaugural lecture at 6.30pm. Saturday hosts the Local Organising Committee Day, put together with the Société de Psychiatrie de l’Est. The 2026 programme is online.

Symposiums and prizes

For an industry player, the main lever is speaking time. The preliminary programme reserves “Partner sessions” on Thursday 3 and Friday 4 December, from 4.40pm to 5.40pm, at the end of the scientific day. The partners page offers the option of ordering a “satellite symposium” or a stand from the organiser.

The congress also awards several prizes. The “180 Secondes Pour Innover” (180 Seconds to Innovate) competition, organised for the fourth year running, invites entrants to present a research project, an innovation or a care pathway in three minutes: €10,000 in prizes is at stake, or €2,500 per category, and the final takes place live in Strasbourg during the congress. Applications are open until midnight on Friday 16 October 2026. One session is also devoted to the Best Publications Prize presentations.

Community & networks

The CFP brings together a broad network of learned societies and partner associations, whose members benefit from preferential registration rates. The Associations Forum gives them a full day of programme: in 2026, the Association Française de Psychiatrie Biologique et de Neuropsychopharmacologie (AFPBN) holds its day there, and the Association Francophone pour l’Enseignement et la Recherche sur les Urgences Psychiatriques (AFERUP) runs a session.

The congress relies on a Young Psychiatrists Committee and on trainee associations, with dedicated rates for trainee members of AFFEP, ANIPPA, ANIMT, ISNI and ISNAR-IMG. The congress’s official newsletter, CQFPsy, relays its news.

On site: what to know

The congress is held at the Palais de la Musique et des Congrès, place de Bordeaux, in the Wacken district, close to the European institutions. According to the operator Strasbourg Events, the tram (lines B and E) serves the Wacken stop or the Kléber stop, 3 minutes’ walk away, and bus line H runs directly from the central station to the Palais de la Musique et des Congrès stop in 12 minutes. From Strasbourg airport, a rail shuttle reaches the central station in 9 minutes.

Registration gives access to all sessions from Wednesday 2 December at 9am to Saturday 5 December 2026 at 5pm. Bnetwork is the official partner travel agency of the 2026 edition for accommodation, with a selection of hotels at negotiated rates in Strasbourg. In December, Strasbourg also hosts its Christmas market, as the local committee’s editorial points out: it is best to book early.

People with disabilities are invited to contact the organiser before registering so that suitable arrangements can be considered.

How much does it cost to exhibit

Planning your visit

For exhibitors

• Request the partnership pack via the industry partners page: it is the only route to stand and symposium rates.
• Enquire early: the congress takes place from 2 to 5 December 2026, and the Partner sessions take a one-hour slot, from 4.40pm to 5.40pm, on Thursday and Friday.
• Bear in mind the wider audience: nurses, psychologists, social care professionals and facility directors attend, particularly on Wednesday with the JSIRP and JACC.
• Plan accommodation ahead: in December, Strasbourg welcomes visitors to its Christmas market.

For the decision-maker visiting

• Register before 20 November 2026: until that date, registration for the full congress costs €590 incl. VAT for a doctor or pharmacist at the full rate, €430 for a member of a partner association or a young doctor, €295 for a non-member trainee, a researcher or a retiree (€100 for a trainee who is a member of one of the partner trainee associations). On site, these rates rise to €670, €480 and €335.
• For psychologists and paramedical staff, the full congress costs €330 incl. VAT, or €250 for a member of a partner association, until 20 November; €350 and €270 on site. Students under 28 pay €100, then €150 on site.
• Check the conditions: since 3 October 2026, any cancellation is charged at 100% and a change of name costs €75 incl. VAT in administration fees.
• Get your attendance funded: CARCO is Qualiopi certified and the congress offers a continuing education rate of €670 for doctors and €415 for psychologists and paramedical staff.
• Identify the Thursday and Friday partner sessions in advance to meet the companies whose solutions you are evaluating.

Sustainability policy & initiatives

Neither the congress website nor CARCO’s presents a CSR policy or an ISO 20121 certification specific to the event. The hybrid format does, however, reduce some of the travel: two channels are streamed live and the sessions remain accessible remotely for nearly four months.

The documented commitment sits at venue level. Strasbourg Events, which operates the Palais de la Musique et des Congrès, states that it has been engaged since 2019 in a CSR approach within the framework of the ISO 20121 standard, built around three pillars: reducing the carbon footprint, circular economy and diversity of the local area. The operator reports an 11% drop in its greenhouse gas emissions between 2022 and 2023, from 4,350 to 3,850 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, a 30% cut in electricity consumption over the same period, and 13.01 tonnes of biowaste collected and recovered each year. It also offers to calculate the carbon footprint of the events it hosts.

Environmental questions also feed into the scientific programme: in 2026, the AFPBN devotes a session to the environment and psychiatric vulnerability, from air pollution to extreme exposures. This is programme content, distinct from a commitment by the organiser.

How the trade show has evolved

Trajectory analysis

The list of previous congresses published by the organiser begins in Nice in 2009, and the edition numbering has been continuous since: 12th in 2020, 18th in 2026. The congress has no home base. It moves between the major French congress centres, from Nice, Lyon, Lille, Paris, Montpellier and Nantes between 2009 and 2019, then to the Corum in Montpellier in 2021, Lille Grand Palais in 2022, the Lyon Convention Centre in 2023, the Couvent des Jacobins in Rennes in 2024 and the Palais des Festivals in Cannes in 2025.

The 2020 edition was held online, under the name e-CFP. Since then, this platform has extended each edition over several months and the congress has operated in a hybrid format. The content, for its part, has widened beyond psychiatrists, with days dedicated to nurses, social care and older adults, whose numbering shows how long they have been running.

The organiser publishes no attendance figures. The venue and dates of the 2027 edition had not been announced at the time of writing.

All data that does not mention its source comes from the organiser’s website.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (congresfrancaispsychiatrie.org).