Finnish Epilepsy Society

Summary of Activities in 2004-2005

First educational meeting was held in Turku, 2 April 2004. The topic of the meeting was Imaging and Epilepsy and the purpose was to give an overview of the diagnostic imaging methods used especially in difficult-to-treat epilepsy currently. There were altogether 60 participants.
Second educational meeting was arranged in Helsinki 26 November 2004 together with the IBE affiliate, Finnish Epilepsy Association (FEA), in order to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of rehabilitation courses arranged for patients with epilepsy and their family members by FEA. The topic was Epilepsy and Rehabilitation and the lectures dealt with topics of comprehensive care and rehabilitation, self-care, quality care, possibilities in vocational rehabilitation for epilepsy and of course described the excellent rehabilitation work that has been done during the years by the FEA.
Third educational meeting was arranged in Oulu 16 March 2005 and the topic was Can Epilepsy Be Cured with a Short Term Drug Treatment? The idea was to discuss the situations when it is possible to stop the medication and the situations when it would be perhaps wiser to continue the medication after seizure freedom has been achieved. We also discussed the topic of what is the role of stopping the medication to possible future drug resistance. There were 70 participants.
Finnish Epilepsy Society (ILAE chapter) and Finnish Epilepsy Association (IBE chapter) arranged together Kuopio Epilepsy Symposium 2005 in Kuopio, 17-18 June 2005. The meeting was the fourth in a series of epilepsy meetings that have been organized jointly by the A.I.Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences and the Department of Neuroscience and Neurology, University of Kuopio. The objective of the meetings is to present up-to-date knowledge of selected topics related to epilepsy so that both experimental and clinical data are presented. We brought together 250 people working in different fields of epileptology to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas and to update the understanding of basic mechanisms, diagnostics and treatment of epilepsy. Altogether 10 distinguished foreign lecturers participated into the symposium.
Fifth meeting dealing with Unverricht Lundborg’s disease was held near Tampere in Nokia 30 September 2005 together with the 10th Anniversary of the PME branch of the Finnish Epilepsy Society. The meeting gave an overview of the disease today in Finland and the scientific approaches that we are having cuurently and in the near future. Moreover there was a meeting of patients and a panel discussion of experts for the patients and their family members. There were 40 participants in the scientific meeting and 40 participants in the patient meeting.

Summary of Activities in Relation to Global Campaign in 2004 and 2005.

The chapter has focused to increase professional awareness of epilepsy as a treatable disorder. All our educational meetings are part of the Global Campaign and, in major meetings, we arrange press conferences to increase public awareness.
Members of the chapter participate in the national effort to create guidelines for the treatment of epilepsy in Finland. In 2005, the guideline, The Treatment of Prolonged Seizure and Status Epilepticus, was published and is available on the Internet in Finnish.
The chapter has also been an active participant in the discussion of reimbursement policies of new antiepileptic drugs and epilepsy surgery in Finland. The goal is to increase the equal availability of the new drugs and surgery for epilepsy patients regardless of their economic situation or community they live in.

Educational Activities

Described in the summary of activities.

Activities in Conjunction with Local IBE Affiliate

Collaboration between ILAE and IBE chapters in Finland is close and each year at least one of the educational meetings is arranged together.
Most of the Global Campaign activities and other public activities arranged by the IBE chapter always have expert/experts invited from the ILAE chapter.
This year we especially celebrated the rehabilitation courses arranged for 30 years by the IBE chapter, although the main method of the courses are group discussions, each course has always involved a lecture given by epileptologist. We also celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the progressive myoclonus branch of the IBE chapter together. These are living examples of the excellent collaboration between the affiliate.

Future Plans

a. The Finnish Epilepsy Society tries to enhance both the adequate clinical follow-up of women with epilepsy during their pregnancy and EURAP in the effort for prospective assessment of pregnancy outcome after prenatal exposure to antiepileptic drugs.

b. Finland has been very active in epilepsy research and Helsinki, our capital, was chosen to be the site for the 7th European Congress on Epileptology in 2006. We will work very hard to fulfill the expectations of a high-quality scientific meeting. We are also combining our efforts at the national level with the IBE chapter during this congress and trying to get publicity for our scientific work as well as decreasing stigma.

Report Submitted By Reetta Kälviäinen