european psychiatric association

Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across the Lifespan (NDAL)

Section committee

KOOIJ J.j. Sandra KOOIJ J.j. Sandra , Chair
MANOR-ABARBANEL Iris MANOR-ABARBANEL Iris, Co-Chair
PHILIPSEN Anne Kjems PHILIPSEN Anne Kjems, Secretary
RAMOS-QUIROGA Josep Antoni, Councillor


Section mission

This Section's mission is to:

Promote the improvement of mental health services to patients with neurodevelopmental disorders across lifespan via the creation of a forum in which research, training, diagnosis, and treatment can be explored in a specifically European context.

Neurodevelopmental disorders, like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorders are impairments of the growth and development of the brain. These conditions typically have a childhood onset and persist into adult life, but there is a significant unmet clinical and research need to understand the persistence into adulthood. Neurodevelopmental disorders are associated with a significant mental, physical, and economic consequences for individuals, and in turn their families and society in general. 

Aims

  1. To promote the training in neurodevelopmental disorders across lifespan.
  2. To enhance the knowledge about the persistence of neurodevelopmental disorders across lifespan.
  3. To improve diagnosis and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders in adulthood.
  4. To promote research in neurodevelopmental disorders across life span in Europe.

Objectives

  1. To organize scientific and educational symposia during the annual European Congress of Psychiatry.
  2. To organize a Continuing Medical Education (CME) course on neurodevelopmental disorders across lifespan in collaboration with national psychiatry societies.
  3. Collaboration with other EPA sections.
  4. Collaboration with the WPA and ECNP in order to improve the management and the research of these disorders across life span.
  5. Networking with other European organizations, with a focus on neurodevelopmental disorders, such as the European Network of Adult ADHD or Family Caretakers Associations.
  6. To establish a platform for the creation of consortiums to increase the research in this field in Europe. 

Section's activities

1. Section symposium at EPA annual meeting.

2. Workshops at EPA congresses.

3. Educational materials about neurodevelopmental disorders across lifespan.

4. Publications (guidelines, results of collaborative research, etc…).

5. Strengthening collaboration between European psychiatrists in the field of research, knowledge transfer and exchange in the field of neurodevelopmental disorders across the lifespan. 

Section objectives

  1. To promote the training in neurodevelopmental disorders across lifespan.

Annual reports