| Chair & Contact Information:
Dr. Torbjorn Tomson
Eurologiska Klinik
Karolinska Sjukhuset
Box 60500
S – 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 85 17 73 705
Fax: +46 85 17 73 757
E-mail:
Goals:
The goal of the Therapeutic Strategies Commission is to address
a wide variety of international problems in the treatment of epilepsy.
Multiple subcommissions have been established to address specific
issues.
Changes in membership:
We were very upset by the unfortunate and untimely death of Claudio
Munari, Chair of the Subcommission on Epilepsy Surgery. Fortunately,
Dr. Paul Boon, M.D. of Belgium was asked to accept this responsibility
and agreed to do so.
Subcommissions and Chairs:
Developing Countries: Paulo DeBittencourt and Esat Eskazan.
Elderly: Ilo Leppik.
Other Therapies: Patricia Gibson.
Outcome Assessment: Joyce Cramer.
Pediatrics: Olivier Dulac.
Pharmaceutical Industry Roger Porter.
Pharmacokinetics and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring: Philip Patsalos.
Polypharmacy and Interactions: Jerzy Majkowski.
Rational Use of AEDs
(Therapeutic Guidelines): Elinor Ben-Menachem and David Chadwick
Surgery: Paul Boon.
Women: Martha Morrell.
Meetings Held by the Commission:
Meetings were held in Prague at the ILAE Symposium in September
.1999 and in Orlando at the AES in December of 1999. Meetings of
most subcommissions were also held at these conferences.
Status of Reports and Guidelines:
Reports are not available for all the subcommissions. However, excellent
progress is being made in multiple areas. Reports of the progress
and plans for the Guidelines; as well as the Polytherapy and Interactions;
and Developing Countries. are provided separately. Planned symposia
and meetings of these groups are included in the request for financial
support submitted to Prof. Avinzini. Specifically, the Guidelines
has moved along very rapidly and will be having a special meeting
at the end of May in Gothenburg to gain consensus to a "Guidelines
to the Guidelines", with the goal of posting this information
on the ILAE web site. A glossary has been developed depicting all
the available antiepileptic drugs, and this can be placed on the
web site as well.
The subcommission on Developing Countries is having
a subsymposium in New Delhi in November of 2000, addressing and
focusing on the problems and possible solutions of bringing therapy
to developing countries.
Contacts and Interactions with Other Commissions:
The various subcommissions have been in direct contact with both
geographic and resource commissions on a regular basis.
Summary of Activities in the Past Year:
The Commission on TherapeuticStrategies has been very active in
the past year, with major advances being made in development of
Guidelines for the ILAE web site, and publication of a book pending
from the Polypharmacy and Interactions Subcommission, and a closely
related Subcommission on Pharmacokinetics and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring,
has developed an extensive text under the leadership of Rene Levy
and should also soon be available. Plans are underway to define
the role of therapeutic monitoring for new antiepileptic drugs.
The outcomes subcommission has defined goals and plans for devising
outcomes to be measured for clinical trials. The Subcommission for
the Elderly plans to apply for a part-day symposium on this subject
at the next ILAE meeting in Buenos Aires under the direction of
Dr. Ilo Leppik. The Subcommission on Developing Countries has been
active and collaborated closely with the organizers of the meeting
of Asia and Oceania, and a distinguished faculty has been assembled
for the symposium there.
Plans for the Coming Year:
As stated above, it is also expected that further activity will
be forthcoming from the Subcommission on Other Therapeutic Measures.
This group was established late, but is assembling key members and
making plans for identification of the issues. The Epilepsy Surgery
Subcommission was delayed in its progress due to the untimely death
of Claudio Munari. With the appointment of Paul Boon, it is expected
that this group will be very active in the coming year.
Annual Report 2000 Table of Contents
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