South African Psychiatry - November 2018

REPORT
THE LUNDBECK
FOCUS DAY
- 18 TH AUGUST 2018
Duncan Rodseth
The Lundbeck Focus day has established itself
as an important event in the calendar for
psychiatrists in South Africa. Lundbeck has
a long tradition of commitment to medical
education and the Focus Day truly reflects this.
This year the event was held at several venues
throughout South Africa. In Johannesburg, Lundbeck
hosted a large group of psychiatrists at the Maslow
Hotel on 18 th August.
Wendy Cupido, Marketing Manager from Lundbeck
said “We have decided for this meeting to expand
the horizons of psychiatrists and present the latest
advances in several other fields of medicine.
Psychiatrists are often called upon to evaluate
and treat patients that are under the care of other
specialists and we felt it would be particularly helpful
for them to understand what is happening in other
areas of medicine”.
The meeting began with a presentation by Professor
Eugenio Panieri who is a General Specialist Head at
the Department of General Surgery Groote Schuur
Hospital and an Associate Professor at the Faculty
of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town.
His areas of clinical interest and research are in
the field of endocrine surgery, breast cancer and
soft tissue sarcoma. Prof Panieri gave a fascinating
presentation entitled “Understanding Breast Cancer
from Superstition to Science Fiction”. He began
with the history of St Agatha of Catania, the patron
saint of breast cancer sufferers and then went on
to describe the treatments for breast cancer from
cauterization in ancient Egypt through to the first
successful interventions of W S Halstead, who made
radical mastectomy the gold standard in the early
1900s.
the clinical picture risk factors and evidence
associated with a decline in cognitive function after
surgery. Dr van Niekerk pointed out that this decline is
not necessarily associated with general anesthesia
but may be seen after surgery with regional
anesthesia. She also discussed the possibility that
there could be post-operative improvement in
cognition in certain patients. Finally, she presented
the risk factors for dementia and showed evidence
to support that up to 35 % of dementia can be
prevented by eliminating risk factors.
The final presentation was by Dr Willie Koen,
Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Vincent Pallotti Hospital in
Cape Town. Dr Koen presented “New Challenges is
Modern Cardiac Surgery”.
During the past decade, cardiac surgery has
changed into a highly technological specialty.
Mechanical cardiac support has become an
everyday treatment and is used much more
commonly than cardiac transplantation. Dr Koen
also mentioned the incredible developments in
battery technology, and particularly advances in
recharging power supplies, that are on the horizon.
The Focus meeting was very well received and
finished with an opportunity for the audience to
discuss the topics with the presenters.
Duncan Rodseth is in private psychiatric practice
at the WITS Donald Gordon Medical Centre. He is an
honorary lecturer at WITS. He also consults as a medical
advisor for Lundbeck on a part time basis. He has
recently started up a ketamine clinic for treating resistant
depression, one of the few ketamine clinics in South Africa
Correspondence: drodseth@icon.co.za
He then discussed chemotherapy, radiation therapy,
estrogen blockade, vaccine treatments and the
evidence of efficacy for these treatments. Professor
Panieri explained that there was considerable
variability in patient responses to the available
treatment and we are now entering the era of gene
profiling to select the best treatment for individual
patients.
Dr Mariët van Niekerk is Neurologist in Private Practice
in Pretoria and has a special interest in Alzheimer’s
dementia. Her talk was entitled “Milk of Amnesia”
Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction. She discussed
The Lundbeck team from left to right are: Erica Palin, Wendy Cupido, Marelize
Bosch, Chantall Hayes, Julie Howarth, Charmaine Thomas, Christel Malherbe.
The lady kneeling in front is Charline Pelzer.
42 * SOUTH AFRICAN PSYCHIATRY ISSUE 17 2018