The report examines the cost of the most common neurological diseases to American society. These diseases include:
• Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias
• Low back pain
• Stroke
• Traumatic brain injury
• Migraine, epilepsy
• Multiple sclerosis
• Spinal cord injury
• Parkinson’s disease
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The estimated annual cost of the diseases totaled $789 billion in 2014 dollars. The costs are expected to increase further through 2050. For example, the costs of dementia and stroke alone are predicted to grow to over $600 billion by 2030.
“Although society continues to reap the benefits of the dramatic research investments in heart disease and cancer over the last few decades, similar levels of investment are required to fund neuroscience research focused on curing devastating neurological diseases such as stroke and Alzheimer’s, both to help our patients and also to avoid costs so large they could destabilize the entire healthcare system and the national economy,” said Clifton Gooch, MD, of Tampa-based University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, and lead author of the study.
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