David B. Vodušek (DV): As a senior experienced European neurologist, can you illustrate the role you give to EAN within the community of European Neurologists? Claudia Sommer (CS): The EAN is the umbrella society for the community of European Neurologists, and I am more than glad that after many years, we have achieved to build one strong society.

For November 2016 we have selected: Cree BAC, Gourraud P-A, Oksenberg JR, et al. Long-term evolution of multiple sclerosis disability in the treatment era. Ann Neurol 2016:80;499-510. Studies describing the natural history of multiple sclerosis (MS) before the availability of disease-modifying treatments have reported a progression of the disease from the relapsing-remitting form to the secondary progressive form in about 50% of patients at 19 years after the onset.

On October 13th The European Federation of Neurological Associations (EFNA) held its annual Neurology Advocacy Awards.
These awards recognise the contribution of an individual or group to the development and promotion of advocacy for people with neurological disorders in Europe.… Continue Reading

Ireland: island of saints and scholars. Although in the interests of full disclosure not all of its 5 million inhabitants are necessarily either saintly or scholarly, the visitor to its shores will certainly find many footprints of Ireland’s tradition of folklore and stories. The island’s temperate climate is nourished by the Gulf Stream, turning the landscape into a lush green onto which are embedded imprints of Ireland’s cultural past, typified by the extraordinary Neolithic tomb at Newgrange.

It is a dream of neurologists to cure degenerative diseases. The big brothers, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease have always been a huge burden of the population but are now, in the millennium of increasing population age becoming a scourge of humanity. While everybody is acknowledging this, both PD (1) and AD (2) communities of clinician researchers and basic researchers are preparing to attack the problem fundamentally frequently unnoticed by the general neurology community.