Taking action on climate change: Testimonials and position statement from the International League Against Epilepsy Climate Change Commission

Angel Aledo-Serrano; Giulia Battaglia; Stephen Blenkinsop; Norman Delanty; Hasnaa M Elbendary; Sara Eyal; Alla Guekht; Medine I Gulcebi; David C Henshall; Michael S Hildebrand; Bernadette Macrohon; Priyanka Madaan; Janet Mifsud; James D Mills; Kathryn Hodgson Neill; Alessia Romagnolo; Annamaria Vezzani; Sanjay M Sisodiya

doi:10.1016/j.seizure.2023.02.003

Taking action on climate change: Testimonials and position statement from the International League Against Epilepsy Climate Change Commission

Seizure. 2023 Mar:106:68-75. doi: 10.1016/j.seizure.2023.02.003. Epub 2023 Feb 4.

Authors

Angel Aledo-Serrano¹, Giulia Battaglia², Stephen Blenkinsop³, Norman Delanty⁴, Hasnaa M Elbendary⁵, Sara Eyal⁶, Alla Guekht⁷, Medine I Gulcebi⁸, David C Henshall⁹, Michael S Hildebrand¹⁰, Bernadette Macrohon¹¹, Priyanka Madaan¹², Janet Mifsud¹³, James D Mills¹⁴, Kathryn Hodgson Neill¹⁵, Alessia Romagnolo¹⁶, Annamaria Vezzani¹⁷, Sanjay M Sisodiya¹⁸

Affiliations

¹ Epilepsy Program, Neurology Department, Hospital Ruber Internacional, Madrid, Spain.
² Neurology Unit, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, Piazza Malan 2, 20097 San Donato Milanese (MI), Italy.
³ School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
⁴ Department of Neurology, Beaumont Hospital, School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, and FutureNeuro Research Centre, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.
⁵ Clinical Genetics Department, Human Genetics and Genome Research Institute National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt.
⁶ Institute for Drug Research, School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
⁷ Moscow Research and Clinical Center for Neuropsychiatry and Pirogov Russian National Research, Moscow, Russian Federation.
⁸ Department of Medical Pharmacology, Marmara University Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey; Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK; Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy, Chalfont St Peter, UK.
⁹ Department of Physiology and Medical Physics, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dublin, Ireland; FutureNeuro, Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Chronic and Rare Neurological Diseases, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dublin, Ireland.
¹⁰ Epilepsy Research Centre, Department of Medicine (Austin Health), The University of Melbourne, Heidelberg, Australia; Neuroscience Group, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia.
¹¹ Department of Pediatrics, Zamboanga City Medical Center, Zamboanga City, Philippines.
¹² Department of Pediatric Neurology, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Faridabad, Haryana, India.
¹³ Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta, Msida, Malta.
¹⁴ Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK; Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy, Chalfont St Peter, UK; Amsterdam UMC, Department of (Neuro)Pathology, Amsterdam Neuroscience, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
¹⁵ International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), Dublin, Ireland.
¹⁶ Amsterdam UMC, Department of (Neuro)Pathology, Amsterdam Neuroscience, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
¹⁷ Department of Acute Brain Injury; Lab. of Epilepsy and Therapeutic Strategies, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milan, Italy.
¹⁸ Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK; Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy, Chalfont St Peter, UK. Electronic address: s.sisodiya@ucl.ac.uk.

PMID: 36774776
DOI: 10.1016/j.seizure.2023.02.003

Abstract

The release of the 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report makes clear that human activities have resulted in significant alterations in global climate. There is no doubt that climate change is upon us; chronic global warming has been punctuated by more frequent extreme weather events. Humanity will have to mitigate climate change and adapt to these changing conditions or face dire consequences. One under-appreciated aspect of this global crisis is its impact on healthcare, particularly people with epilepsy and temperature-sensitive seizures. As members of the inaugural International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) Climate Change Commission, we recount the personal motivations that have led each team member to decide to take action, in the hope that our journeys as ordinary clinicians and scientists will help persuade others that they too can act to foster change within their spheres of influence.

Keywords: Epilepsy; Global crisis; Global warming; Neurology; Seizure.

Publication types

Editorial

MeSH terms

Climate Change*
Epilepsy* / therapy
Humans
Seizures