The possibility of using highly effective drugs at an early stage of the disease, rather than in the so-called second line, the creation of MS clinics and centres, and allowing patients to co-determine therapy - these were the most important demands made during the meeting of the Parliamentary Group on Multiple Sclerosis. The topic of the debate, which was organised on 30 November, was: "MS therapy in Poland - the needs of patients and doctors versus drug programmes".
The debate 'MS therapy in Poland - the needs of patients and doctors versus drug programmes' was organised by the Parliamentary Group on Multiple Sclerosis. It took place at the end of November.
- We should change our thinking about treatment strategies for multiple sclerosis. Drug programmes in Poland are a great achievement, as they guarantee free therapy for people with a very serious disease. However, the new strategies say that it is worth treating the patient intensively at the beginning of the disease, as this translates into a better quality of life in the future,' she appealed. Prof. Agnieszka Słowik, Head of the Department of Clinical Neurology, University Hospital in Kraków.
- Early treatment with an active drug more strongly inhibits brain atrophy. This formed the basis of a new insight that the first choice drug should be those with high efficacy, because the earlier we start them, the better the chance for the patient to maintain function and independence, she said. Prof. Halina Bartosik-Psujek, President of the Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology Section of the Polish Neurological Society (PTN)who gave a lecture on 'The new therapeutic paradigm in multiple sclerosis: highly effective drugs as first-line treatment'.
- Especially as MS is the first non-traumatic cause of disability in young people. We already have some weapons: immunomodulatory therapies, which we should also use as prevention of disability. It is extremely important to act in the first phase of the disease, when there is a lot of inflammatory activity and still relatively little neurodegeneration, she added Prof. Monika Adamczyk-Sowa, President-elect of the MS and Neuroimmunology Section of the PTN, co-author of the lecture.
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