Inspiration

Inspirational work!

Some colleagues asked what inspired me to start this complex international scientific network in the first place… Let’s call it a mixture of personal and professional drive. The number of people dealing with ADHD and/or SUD is tremendous, so this IS a relevant and possibly rewarding area of interest. And from the personal side: I’ve seen lots of kids that struggle with behavioural problems. Having worked as a mental health nurse in an addiction treatment centre I have seen too many lives destroyed by Substance Use Disorders…
And my wife and I have three sons (aged 8, 16 and 18 years) in the same age group as the children that may have to cope with these disorders. So to remind me, I have a drawing of one of my sons (he painted this when he was 8 years old) on the wall in my working room. Here it is!

I wonder what inspires you in your professional work on ADHD and Substance Abuse. Feel free to post your story here!

Kind regards,
Geurt

How ICASA develops

Processed 120 e-mails and about 20 international telephone calls Monday. Let’s call it the pre-congress stress… This number is obviously related to the actual size of the ICASA network (International Collaboration on ADHD and Substance Abuse): it consists of 25 centers in 14 countries; 12 of these countries will be represented in Barcelona. The reason is DEVELOPMENT. Development is the key since we started our working group in 2005. Starting off as a local Dutch initiative; the first foreign colleagues joined swiftly. Scientists and clinicians from the USA, the UK, Spain, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands were interested in development, testing and implementation of evidence-based procedures for diagnosis of ADHD in patients with SUD, one of the goals of ICASA. In 2006 and 2007 Italy, Belgium, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Switzerland and Ireland followed. And this year Australia joined forces.

Other institutes from Greece and Luxembourg are interested in joining our collaboration. We do not need to worry about the number of participants in ICASA anymore. We will develop ICASA in such a way that we keep on being a collaborative working group. We emphasize the work that is needed to be done: Excellent research in the topic “ ADHD and Substance Abuse”. There is way too much fuss both from people who are “in favour of the concepts of ADHD and Substance Abuse” (the believers) and from people who strongly oppose these concepts (the non-believers). ICASA will try to keep far from these discussions by generating answers by scientific research.

In the next days I will tell you more about what we intend to do.

Geurt

ICASA Study: Countdown Started!

Just three days. That is the countdown time left untill the start of the ICASA study on ADHD and substance abuse. A groundbreaking project that will hopefully provide definite answers to some appealing questions and challenges we face, regarding ADHD and substance abuse.

Just three days to go to the investigators meeting and kick-off; we will need that time to make some final arrangements. Will we succeed, and will the study start as planned? Will our ideas on an additional genetic study and a project on youngsters be turned into reality too? I will keep you posted in this new blog!

And remember: this blog is an experiment… So feel free to comment, and to inform your friends and colleagues about this blog!

Regards,

Geurt van de Glind

Trimbos Institute