Who We Are
About CAMESA
The Canadian Alliance for Monitoring Effectiveness and Safety of Antipsychotic Medications in Children is a non-profit group of physicians, allied health care professionals, and researchers with grant support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. We are dedicated to improving the quality of life of children and their families through the practice of evidence-based medicine and promoting drug safety. We have been working since 2011 to promote the use of the CAMESA guidelines through open access publication of the guidelines, information booths at international, national and provincial meetings of pediatricians and psychiatrists, and educational outreach activities at universities across Canada. We have distributed our drug safety information pamphlets for families to mental health clinics across Canada, and by request to mental health clinics in the United States.
CAMESA is led by Dr Tamara Pringsheim, neurologist and clinical epidemiologist at the University of Calgary. Dr Pringsheim’s interest in antipsychotic medication safety developed through her clinical work in the area of Tourette Syndrome and drug induced movement disorders. Dr Pringsheim is the director of the Calgary Tourette Syndrome Clinic at the Alberta Children’s Hospital where she sees children and adults with Tourette Syndrome. She sees adults with movement disorders at the Movement Disorders Clinic at the Foothills Medical Centre.
Ongoing Work
Dr Pringsheim is conducting a prospective cohort study at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. In this study we are evaluating the feasibility of the monitoring guideline in clinical practice, as well as examining the rate of antipsychotic medication induced metabolic and extrapyramidal side effects. The results of the study will be used to refine the monitoring protocol in the future.
Dr Pringsheim is working in collaboration with Dr Daniel Gorman from the Hospital for Sick Children to promote the use of the CAMESA guidelines among resident physicians training in pediatrics, family medicine and psychiatry. Dr Pringsheim and Dr Gorman received a grant from the Sick Kids Foundation to create a national educational curriculum on the assessment and management of disruptive behaviour disorders which examines the evidence for psychosocial and pharmacological therapies, and appropriate monitoring of antipsychotic safety in children.