UK academy wants neuroscience research to benefit patients more quickly
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《英国医生杂志》
The Academy of Medical Sciences in the United Kingdom has called for more rapid translation of basic research in neuroscience to better management and patient care for patients with neurological diseases.
In a report published this week, the academy suggests that an opportunity exists to move from current treatments that primarily help patients with neurological conditions such as Alzheimer抯 disease, stroke, and cerebral palsy to adapt to their brain impairment to a new era that focuses on helping the brain to achieve a measure of functional recovery. It argued that increased investment in research into diseases of the brain was offering the potential to develop treatments that would reduce the impairment suffered by such patients.
Richard Frackowiak, professor of neurology at University College London and chairman of the academy抯 working group that compiled the report, said: "A new science of restorative neurology is within our grasp. On the basis of current research, we can now begin to raise the expectations of patients and practitioners and challenge the long held assumption that damage to the central nervous system is irreversible."
The report outlined new treatments under development, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, neural transplantation, and gene therapy. It also highlighted the progress made in imaging the brain, in the growing understanding of the relation between the brain and behaviour, and the increasing appreciation of environmental factors in regeneration after brain injury.
"Scientists and doctors should work together much more closely to ensure research progress benefits patients as quickly as possible," the report argued. It recommended improvements in the way services are organised (including the establishment of regional neurorehabilitation research centres) to help this process, and improved career structures and incentives to attract people to work in this area of medical research.
Speaking at the launch of the report, the president of the academy, Keith Peters, described the report as "a paradigm for strengthening clinical research" and noted that it drew attention to the current wide gap between scientific knowledge and clinical application.
The vice president of the academy, Ray Tallis, professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Manchester, reported that about 135 000 people in the United Kingdom currently had long term effects of brain injury, 110 000 had cerebral palsy, 85 000 had multiple sclerosis, and 300 000 had stroke. He warned that many causes of neurodisability were strongly age related, and so the prevalence would rise with the ageing population. He added: "Neurological disease may well become the biggest challenge for health services in developed countries."
Professor Tallis said: "The aim of neurorehabilitation is to maximise independence in people with neurological impairments, and this can be done with a triple strategy—preventing complication, adapting to impairment, and reversal of impairment." He added: "In a neurodisabling illness such as stroke, we are currently doing well in preventing complications and helping patients adapt to impairment, but we are not doing as well in reversing impairment." He therefore called for "universalisation of best practice and a renewed effort at reversing impairment."
The Academy of Medical Sciences is an independent scientific body including some of the United Kingdom抯 leading medical scientists.(BMJ Chibuzo Odigwe)
In a report published this week, the academy suggests that an opportunity exists to move from current treatments that primarily help patients with neurological conditions such as Alzheimer抯 disease, stroke, and cerebral palsy to adapt to their brain impairment to a new era that focuses on helping the brain to achieve a measure of functional recovery. It argued that increased investment in research into diseases of the brain was offering the potential to develop treatments that would reduce the impairment suffered by such patients.
Richard Frackowiak, professor of neurology at University College London and chairman of the academy抯 working group that compiled the report, said: "A new science of restorative neurology is within our grasp. On the basis of current research, we can now begin to raise the expectations of patients and practitioners and challenge the long held assumption that damage to the central nervous system is irreversible."
The report outlined new treatments under development, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, neural transplantation, and gene therapy. It also highlighted the progress made in imaging the brain, in the growing understanding of the relation between the brain and behaviour, and the increasing appreciation of environmental factors in regeneration after brain injury.
"Scientists and doctors should work together much more closely to ensure research progress benefits patients as quickly as possible," the report argued. It recommended improvements in the way services are organised (including the establishment of regional neurorehabilitation research centres) to help this process, and improved career structures and incentives to attract people to work in this area of medical research.
Speaking at the launch of the report, the president of the academy, Keith Peters, described the report as "a paradigm for strengthening clinical research" and noted that it drew attention to the current wide gap between scientific knowledge and clinical application.
The vice president of the academy, Ray Tallis, professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Manchester, reported that about 135 000 people in the United Kingdom currently had long term effects of brain injury, 110 000 had cerebral palsy, 85 000 had multiple sclerosis, and 300 000 had stroke. He warned that many causes of neurodisability were strongly age related, and so the prevalence would rise with the ageing population. He added: "Neurological disease may well become the biggest challenge for health services in developed countries."
Professor Tallis said: "The aim of neurorehabilitation is to maximise independence in people with neurological impairments, and this can be done with a triple strategy—preventing complication, adapting to impairment, and reversal of impairment." He added: "In a neurodisabling illness such as stroke, we are currently doing well in preventing complications and helping patients adapt to impairment, but we are not doing as well in reversing impairment." He therefore called for "universalisation of best practice and a renewed effort at reversing impairment."
The Academy of Medical Sciences is an independent scientific body including some of the United Kingdom抯 leading medical scientists.(BMJ Chibuzo Odigwe)