Danielle Andrade, MD, MSc: Education for Adult Neurologists on Pediatric-Onset Epilepsies

“One big gap that I see is that the adult neurologist’s knowledge of certain pediatric-onset epilepsies still needs some improvement, especially some genetic syndromes.”

For quite some time, the adult neurologist caring for the patient with epilepsy would encounter patients with epilepsy, but without a diagnosis, then referred to as symptomatic epilepsy. Patients would experience these diseases and undergo a number of exams, tests, and evaluations, only to fail to be properly diagnosed.

These physicians now have the good fortune of having next-generation sequencing and screenings, previously undiagnosed conditions—such as STXBP1 encephalopathy, PCDH19 epilepsy, and SCN1A mutations, to name a few—can now be addressed. New therapies and research have helped open the door for better methods of treatment.

Although, for Danielle Andrade, MD, MSc, professor of medicine, neurology, University of Toronto, who treats these pediatric patients, there is still a gap in the understanding of how to treat these childhood-onset diseases. To find out more about this gap, NeurologyLive spoke with Andrade at the 2019 International Epilepsy Congress, in Bangkok, Thailand.

For more coverage of IEC 2019, click here.

REFERENCE

Andrade D. The need for transition programs. Presented at: 2019 International Epilepsy Congress. June 22-26, 2019; Bangkok, Thailand. Presentation 71.