TEMs 2012
This year, two Targeted Expert Meetings (TEMs) will held on 12 and 13 October 2012 in Vienna, Austria, just before the 25th ECNP Congress.
Are you interested in attending? Find out more about the TEMs below, and how to participate.
TEM Child and Adolescent Disorders
Autism: from deviant neurodevelopment through illness mechanisms towards impaired function
Neuroscience of Autism Spectrum Disorders
Autism Spectrum Disorders is a category that comprises a group of neurodevelopmental disorders in which the innate capacity for reciprocal social interaction is compromised.
Individuals with ASD have significant differences in brain growth trajectories, together with age-related differences from controls in several areas. There seems to be widespread regions affected, including deviant anatomy and function of fronto-striatal systems or temporo-parietal areas. An abnormal organization of relevant brain circuits following an exaggerated and abnormal early brain growth (probably due mainly to aberrant White matter maturation) is speculated. Structural and functional basis for deviant social interaction will be discussed.
In addition to brain pathology, ASD subjects frequently have multiple specific and unspecific organism abnormalities, some of which could be functional and dynamic and not chronically static. The possible increase in autism rates (probably more than 50 % of reported increased rates as not due to increased awareness, expertise in diagnosis and changing criteria, Nature 2011) warrants looking for environmental factors that may underlie developmental hazards that ultimately lead to an autism phenotype. Neurodevelopment will be discussed in the context of gene-environment interaction and systems theories of autism.
The possibility that there are identifiable physiopathological intermediates in the way from the causes to the phenotype, brings up the likelihood of finding biomarkers of autism and new therapeutic targets. Neurotransmitters and neurotrophic factors important for brain development, unspecific illness markers (such as those related to inflammatory/immunologic responses), substances involved in the energy metabolism (redox system), substances known to be involved in social affiliation (oxytocin) are been tested in clinical trials and will be discussed.
TEM Neurology
Epilepsy and Psychiatry
This TEM consists of the following three blocks:
1) Psychiatric comorbidity in epilepsy
Psychiatric comorbidity is of significant importance in epilepsy. The prevalence of psychiatric comorbidity in epilepsy is significantly higher than in other chronic disease states. Conversely psychiatric disturbances represent a risk factor for the development of new-onset epilepsy.
Epilepsy offers a unique window to study the basic mechanisms underlying these psychiatric conditions using structural and functional imaging as well as non-invasive and invasive EEG studies.
2) Psychiatric and behavioural side effects of antiepileptic drugs – pro-convulsive effects of psychoactive drugs
Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) can be associated with significant psychiatric and behavioural side effects and have been implicated in suicidal ideation in epilepsy patients. Conversely, AEDs may have positive effects on pre-existing psychiatric comorbidities highly prevalent in epilepsy patients.
3) Antiepileptic drug development and psychiatric indications of antiepileptic drug
During the last two decades numerous new antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) have been developed which not only improved medical treatment of epilepsy patients, but also have gained broad applications in psychiatric indications. A thorough understanding of the modes of actions of AEDs is necessary to systematically plan their use in these psychiatric indications.