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Ian's avatar

MS research has become an ever expanding industry - good for Professors, research teams, PhD students and pharma. The ECTRIMS meetings are an opportunity to meet up with some old mates, try the local food, and add some more air mile points. This was the 39th ECTRIMS meeting, but (as your alternative event illustrates), it’s about coming up with questions, not answering them. What has really been achieved over the last 39 years? Surely the advances in technology (imaging, computing..) should have helped answer at least some of the key questions still being debated. 1500 abstracts presented (more a graphic design contest than about any useful findings) - how many of these will deliver any real benefit to those with the disease? 9000 participants with all their PhDs, but there’s no agreement on whether EBV is the cause, or how to stop smouldering MS! If ECTRIMS reaches its 50th meeting, then this must be viewed as a failure. I’d scrap the current gravy train approach and have a meeting in 5 years time (2028). At this meeting 5 teams (collaborating across the world) would report back (definitive answers and ready to go solutions eg a specific anti-viral) on the key topics of EBV, smouldering MS, remyelination, neuro-restoration and prevention. Unfortunately, it will be like turkeys voting for Christmas. No one will rock the boat, so the current boring format for the ECTRIMS meetings will continue and no questions will ever be answered, and those air miles will keep building up.

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Christian's avatar

I need the community to add a session / day all about dealing with day to day symptoms cause I am sick to death of the typical roller coaster of ;

Try Gabapentin, Tegretol, lyrica, this and that until we make ourselves sick and dizzy figuring it out. No one talks about helping our day to day. It’s frustrating while we struggle every day whilst conferences focus on stuff that doesn’t give us actual relief. It’s great to focus on diet and biomarkers but can someone alleviate my symptoms.

Day 3 :

Treating MS symptoms

What treatments are efficacious

How to treat xyz symptoms

Any new research and treatments in the pipeline

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