WFN Publications

World Brain Day 2024: a focus on brain health and prevention⧉

Author: Wolfgang Grisold , David W Dodick, Alla Guekht, Steven L Lewis, Tissa Wijeratne

Publication: The Lancet Neurology. 2024 Jul 18.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(24)00270-9 ⧉

The World Brain Day 2024 focus is brain health and prevention, aligning with WHO brain health initiatives and the Intersectoral Global Action Plan on Epilepsy and Other Neurological Disorders (IGAP). The joint focus of all six World Federation of Neurology regions on prevention highlights the opportunity for and underscores the pivotal role of prevention, proactive care, and risk mitigation in reducing the enormous impact of neurological diseases, now the leading cause of disability globally.

World Brain Day 2024: Promoting brain health and prevention ⧉

Author: Tissa Wijeratne, David Dodick, Steven L. Lewis, Alla Guekht, Wolfgang Grisold, on behalf of WFN

Publication: Journal of the Neurological Sciences. 2024 Jun 14

DOI: 10.1016/j.jns.2024.123095 ⧉

WBD 2024 represents a call to action for stakeholders across all regions and sectors to prioritize brain health and prevention. Through advocacy, education, and community engagement, we can empower individuals and communities to adopt recommendations, such as healthy lifestyles, and reduce the burden of neurological disorders worldwide.

World Federation of Neurology ⧉

Author: Wolfgang Grisold

Publication: European Journal of Neurology. 2024 June 12

DOI: 10.1111/ene.16347 ⧉

To acknowledge the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the formation of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN), the World Federation of Neurology was invited to contribute its perspective on the formation of the EAN and its activities over the past decade.

This invited review on the view of the WFN on the EAN is also an important opportunity, from the point of the WFN, to examine the WFN's relations with the European societies. This includes reviewing the interactions of the previous ENS and EFNS and the current EAN with the ongoing WFN developments over time, viewing the present state of the EAN and WFN and visualizing the future. This article is composed of four components: (1) the historical development and role of the WFN, (2) the EAN, (3) the EAN and WFN and (4) the past and the future.

General neurology: Current challenges and future implications ⧉

Authors: Claudio Lino Alberto Bassetti, Alice Accorroni, Astri Arnesen, Hamidon Bin Basri, Thomas Berger, Peter Berlit, Paul Boon, Augustina Charway-Felli, Jera Kruja, Steven Lewis, Michael Markowski, Marco Tulio Medina, Pamela McCombe, Elena Moro, Serefnur Ozturk, Phil Smith, Vladimira Vuletic

Publication: European Journal of Neurology. 2024 Mar 28:e16237

DOI: 10.1111/ene.16237 ⧉

This is a white paper of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) General Neurology Task Force in collaboration with representatives of American Academy of Neurology (AAN), African Federation (AFAN), Australian New Zealand Association of Neurologists (ANZAN), Asian and Oceanian Association of Neurology (AOAN), European Federation of Neurological Associations (EFNA), Pan American Federation of Neurological Societies (PAFNS), Residents and Research Fellows Section of the EAN (RRFS), and World Federation of Neurology (WFN).

The expanding burden of neurological disorders ⧉

Authors: Wolfgang Grisold

Publication: The Lancet Neurology. 2024 Mar 14. ⧉

DOI: 10.1016/S1474-4422(24)00086-3

New estimates of the global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system are reported in an updated analysis from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021. In their Article in The Lancet Neurology, the GBD 2021 Nervous System Disorders Collaborators report mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) attributable to diseases and conditions that cause dysfunction of the nervous system.

The future of brain health advocacy: Recommendations of the 2023 World Congress of Neurology advocacy panel ⧉

Authors: Mohammad Wasay, Wolfgang Grisold, Tissa Wijeratne, Walter Struhal, Safa Younis,

Publication: Journal of the Neurological Sciences, Volume 458, 2024, 122914, ISSN 0022-510X.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jns.2024.122914

Article shares insights and recommendations on neurological advocacy emanating from two panel discussions held at the World Federation of Neurology's (WFN's) 2023 World Congress of Neurology (WCN) that took place in Montreal, Canada, in October 2023.

Brain health, disability, and the need for broader thinking ⧉

Publication: The Lancet Neurology. Editorial, 2023, Sep 22(9):769

DOI: 10.1016/S1474-4422(23)00236-3

Improving access to rehabilitation is crucial but other aspects of health care and perceptions also need to change. For example, access to other types of care, including palliative care, has to improve, and barriers to seeking care, including stigma, need to be removed. Health-care professionals, including neurologists, need to be aware of patients' needs and the social context of disability, including to ensure that services are accessible to people with different mobility and communication needs. Health-care professionals also need to be sensitive to what their patients want and be mindful of the disability paradox, whereby the clinician's perception of quality of life can differ from that of the patient.

World Brain Day 2023 - Brain Health and Disability: "Leave no one behind" ⧉

Authors: Tissa Wijeratne, David W. Dodick, Steven L. Lewis, Alla Guekht, Ksenia Pochigaeva, Wolfgang Grisold

Publication: Journal of the Neurological Sciences, 2023, 120720, ISSN 0022-510X

DOI: 10.1016/j.jns.2023.120720

Worldwide, the number of persons with disability is assumed to be around 1.3 billion. Although several definitions exist, such as the medical and social models, the social model has more holistic approaches and engulfs more aspects. Historically, many considerations were based on eugenics until the middle of the 20th century when a change of paradigm occurred, and disability has since been subject to many developments in the past decades.

Uniting for global brain health: Where advocacy meets awareness. ⧉

Authors: Sebastian F. Winter, Donna Walsh, Wolfgang Grisold, Justin T. Jordan, Pratibha Singhi, J. Helen Cross, Alla Guekht, Tadeusz Hawrot, Frédéric Destrebecq, Valery L. Feigin, Symon M. Kariuki, Mayowa O. Owolabi, Gagandeep Singh, Jorg Dietrich, Audrey Craven, Action Amos, Man Mohan Mehndiratta, Mary Secco, Gus A. Baker, Francesca Sofia

Publication: Epilepsy & Behavior. 2023 Aug 1;145.

DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2023.109295

In a historic vote, the World Health Organization (WHO)'s 194 Member States unanimously adopted the Intersectoral Global Action Plan on Epilepsy and Other Neurological Disorders 2022–2031 (IGAP), committing to ''reduce the stigma, impact and burden of neurological disorders

Advocacy for patients with headache disorders ⧉

Authors: Gouider R, Lorenz DH, Craven A, Grisold W, Dodick DW.

Publication: Eneurologicalsci. 2023 May 10:100466.

DOI: 10.1016/j.ensci.2023.100466

Primary headache disorders are worldwide highly prevalent and burdensome and should be therefore considered as a global public health priority. However, too many patients with primary headache disorders still do not receive satisfying care. The most likely identified reasons for such a scenario - lack of public awareness, stigma, lack of trained professionals with inadequate healthcare systems and policies - are remediable. Despite the progresses that were made in headache advocacy, these efforts have not yielded substantial improvements in research funding or access to specialty care and even standards of care. The situation is more complex in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) where headache advocacy is urgently needed given the magnitude of the difficulties that patients with primary headache disorders face in accessing care. 

See also ABCs of Headache: Advocacy, Biology, Care ⧉

The Intersectoral Global Action Plan (IGAP): A unique opportunity for neurology across the globe ⧉

Editors: Wolfgang Grisold, Morris Freedman, Riadh Gouider, Alla Guekht, Steven Lewis, Marco Medina, Chandrashekhar Meshram, Guy Rouleau, Richard Stark, on behalf of the Trustees of the World Federation of Neurology

Published: 11 April 2023

Publication: Journal of the Neurological Sciences. 2023 Apr 11:120645.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jns.2023.120645

The World Health Assembly (WHA) approved the Intersectoral Global Action Plan (IGAP) in 2022. This ambitious project, formally called the Intersectoral Global Action Plan for Epilepsy and Other Neurological Disorders, is a 10-year plan to enhance neurology implementation worldwide and to raise the status of brain health and neurology services for patients with neurological diseases. The IGAP has 5 important components: relation with policy makers, therapy, prophylaxis, research, and public health. The implementation of IGAP is a challenge, not only for the specialty of neurology but for the whole neurological community, encompassing patients, carers, healthcare providers, and the public. The lack of a unified definition of neurology and the great variety of health systems, as well as the dependency on socioeconomic status, will necessitate custom-made solutions in all regions.

ABCs of Headache: Advocacy, Biology, Care ⧉

Editors: David W. Dodick and Wolfgang Grisold

Published: 13 September 2022

Publication: eNeurologicalSci (Open Access)

This special issue collects articles that cover the epidemiology, biology, and treatment advances of primary headache disorders with an emphasis on migraine.

Highlights

• Migraine in the workplace ⧉
  Olivia Begasse de Dhaem, Fumihiko Sakai
• Headache: Treatment update ⧉
  Oyindamola I. Ogunlaja, Peter J. Goadsby
• Barriers to headache care in low- and middle-income countries ⧉
  Dominique Mortel, Nfwama Kawatu, Timothy J. Steiner, Deanna Saylor
• Advocacy for patients with headache disorders ⧉
  Riadh Gouider, Deborah Henscheid Lorenz, Audrey Craven, Wolfgang Grisold, David W. Dodick
• Headache advocacy ⧉
  Wolfgang Grisold, David W. Dodick

Advocacy in Neurology ⧉

Published: February 2019

Editors: Wolfgang Grisold, Walter Struhal, Thomas Grisold

Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOI:  10.1093/med/9780198796039.001.0001

This book focuses on advocacy activities in the field of neurology. Neurology deals with heterogeneous and diverse populations of patients, who suffer from disability, chronic, and often progressive diseases. The complex characteristics of neurological diseases yield exceptional challenges to plan for and implement advocacy activities on all levels. All stakeholders are challenged to provide the support patients need; advocacy facilitates this process and bundles efforts to reach the objective of the advocacy task.

Building on the premise that advocacy goes beyond merely theoretical claims, this book collects and organizes advocacy approaches in practice. Thereby, we draw on different dimensions of 'advocacy in neurological practice' and discuss implications for management, healthcare, planning, and policymaking.