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Charlotte Dravet (born 14 July 1936) is a French paediatric psychiatrist and epileptologist.
After graduation at the Aix-Marseille University, Dravet trained in Pediatrics in Marseille, France from 1962–1965. She wrote her M.D. thesis on the Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.[1] In 1971 she was certified as psychiatrist.
From 1965 to 2000, Dravet specialized in epilepsy at the Centre Saint Paul in Marseille, among others with Henri Gastaut, Joseph Roger, and René Soulayrol (pediatric psychiatry).[2] She was the resident doctor and actually lived on the premises until her retirement in 2000. Dravet had the opportunity, accompany and observe inpatients for many years, which resulted in some of her major contributions to epileptology.
In 1972, Dravet trained in the pediatric EEG Department of the Hôpital Saint-Vincent de Paul and in the Department of Functional Neurosurgery of the Hôpital Sainte-Anne in Paris. From 1989 to 2000, Dravet was Associate Medical Director of the Centre Saint Paul.
With Joseph Roger and Michelle Bureau, Dravet played an active role in the delineation of epileptic syndromes through several workshops and the first edition of the book "Epileptic syndromes in infancy, childhood and adolescence". In 1981 she described together with Michelle Bureau the benign myoclonic epilepsy of infancy[3] and in 1978[4] as well as in 1982 the severe myoclonic epilepsy of childhood. This syndrome was later named the Dravet syndrome,[5] [6] which was confirmed by subsequent genetic discoveries and became a model for the genetic childhood epilepsies.
From 1991 to 1993, Charlotte Dravet was a member of the Scientific Board of the French Foundation for Research on Epilepsy. From 1996 to 2004, she was a member of the Task Force on Classification and Terminology of the International League Against Epilepsy ILAE. From 1997 to 1999, she served as president of the French League Against Epilepsy (LFCE). In 2000 she organized the first National Epilepsy Day in France. From 2003 to 2006, she was a member of the Board of the French Comité National pour l’Épilepsie and she still is a member of the Scientific Board of the International Dravet syndrome Epilepsy Action League.
Since her retirement, Dravet has focused her activities on the Dravet syndrome. As Honorary Consultant she regularly attends the Childhood Epilepsy Unit at the Policlinico A. Gemelli of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome, Italy, where she sees patients with this severe epilepsy and, in collaboration with her Italian colleagues, coordinates research on their cognitive development.
Dravet trained or helped train many epileptologists who came to Marseille to learn about the epileptic syndromes of infancy and childhood. She is also a frequent speaker about epilepsy and has spoken at epilepsy meetings and workshops worldwide. Dravet has also participate in events organised by patients’ and parents’ associations worldwide.
Charlotte Dravet is Honorary Member of several chapters of the ILAE. She has been awarded as "Ambassador for Epilepsy" by the ILAE and the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE) in 1989, with the European Epileptology Prize by the Commission on European Affairs (CEA) of the ILAE in 2004, and with the "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the ILAE and IBE in 2017.[8] In 2019, she received the Dravet Award[9] from the Dravet Syndrome Foundation Spain for her contribution to the knowledge and research of Dravet syndrome.In 2011 she has been nominated Chevalier in the French Order of the Légion d'honneur.