Serge Gauthier, MD, FRCPC 
(Canada), Board of Directors

Serge Gauthier is acknowledged for his pioneer work in the field of psychogeriatrics. He is Professor,  Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Department of Psychiatry, Department of Medicine, McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is also Director, Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders Unit, McGill Centre for Studies in Aging. He graduated in medicine from the University of Montréal, took Neurology training at McGill University, and a Research Fellowship at Prof. Theodore L. Sourkes Laboratory, Allen Memorial Institute, Montreal.

His contributions to research include design and implementation of randomized clinical trials in order to establish the safety and efficacy of cholinesterase inhibitors, muscarinic agonists, and agents possibly modifying progression, for Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. His special interests include evidence and consensus approach to the management of dementia in different stages, and the ethics of research involving persons with dementia.

Dr. Gauthier has received various awards for clinical research, and for studies in aging. He has participated on many boards and committees in scientific organizations and universities. He has spoken extensively and written more than 250 papers in peer-review journals and book chapters, and 18 books and educational materials on psychogeriatric issues, and has participated in many university activities, including the supervision of research students and fellows, and thesis review.

His publications include Clinical Diagnosis and Management of Alzheimer’s Disease (1996, 2000, 2001), Alzheimer’s Disease in Primary Care (with Alistair Burns and William Pettit, 1997, 1999), Pharmacotherapy of Alzheimer’s Disease (1998), Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders Annual (with Jeffrey Cummings, 2000, 2001, 2002), Management of Dementia (with Simon Lovestone, 2001), Vascular Cognitive Impairment (with Timo Erkinjuntti, 2002). 

Working with the IPA, Dr. Gauthier has participated in meetings on measurement scales for BPSD, and more recently at the Consensus Conference on the etiology, diagnosis and management of vascular dementia and of Dementia with Lewy Bodies. He proposes to advocate for similar focused and well-published meetings as a member of the Board of Directors. A topic of particular importance in 2004 will be amnesic MCI, considering the results of large scale placebo-controlled studies that will be released at the Montreal/Springfield meeting.

He participated as a guest speaker to the IPA Annual meeting that took place in Vancouver, in the Ethics of Clinical Research Symposium. The issue of access of persons with dementia to research is of great importance to him and he proposes to explore the use of advance power of attorney for research through the relevant IPA subcommittees.

He is now the Chair of IPA’s Pharmacy and Therapeutics Task Force where his priorities will be to update treatment guidelines using psychoactive drugs and increase access to safe and effective drugs for dementia and other age-associated neuropsychiatric conditions in all countries.

Dr. Gauthier has been a member of IPA since 1998 and was elected to the Board of Directors in 2003. He may be contacted at serge.gauthier@mcgill.ca.

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