BRUSSELS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The annual cost of brain disorders in Europe has soared to 798 billion euros in what a new study describes as a social, political and financial "ticking bomb".

The report, entitled "Cost of disorders of the brain in Europe 2010"¹ and commissioned by the European Brain Council (EBC), argues that the bill will continue to rise as people live longer, thus representing "the number one economic challenge for European health care now and in the future".

The figure - equating to 1,550 euros per European - is more than double the estimate made in an EBC report published in 2005.

"The increasing burden and the associated increasing cost of disorders of the brain is a ticking bomb under the European economy and the EU society as a whole," the authors say, before calling for a major increase in research funding and resources to help combat the trend.

Carried out by leading epidemiologists and health economists, the study is wider ranging than its predecessor, accessing more comprehensive data while covering 30 countries compared to 28 and 19 diagnostic groups of disorders rather than 12.

The mental and neurological disorders in question - well over 100 in total - vary widely, from headaches, migraines and sleep disorders on the one hand to strokes, Parkinson's disease, psychotic disorders and dementia on the other.

They have a major impact on society, with more than a third of the region's 514 million people having been affected in some way, either suffering from a condition themselves or having aided or cared for sufferers.

The "immense and expanding" cost of brain disorders is also substantially higher than other comparable disease areas like cardiovascular disease or cancer. The European Heart Network set the cost of cardiovascular disease at 192 billion euros in the EU in 2008, while the total annual cost of cancer is estimated to be between 150-250 billion euros.

Jes Olesen, Professor of neurology. Danish Headache Center and Department of Neurology. Glostrup Hospital. University of Copenhagen said: "Despite the overwhelming impact brain disorders have on society and the costs, which far exceed that of cancer and cardiovascular disease, research into the diagnosis, prevention and more effective treatment of such disorders has not been recognised as a top priority This Report indicates that brain research needs far more focus and to receive considerable proportion of healthcare research funding."

In 2010, direct healthcare costs of brain disorders - covering items such as doctors' visits, hospital care and drugs - constituted almost a quarter (24 percent) of the EU's total healthcare expenditure, which is estimated at around 1,260 billion euros for 2010.

Indirect costs - comprising loss of production due to work absences or enforced early retirement - add considerably to this.

World Health Organization figures support this, suggesting that brain diseases cause 35 percent of the burden of all diseases in Europe.

Yet while there have been significant funding improvements at the European Commission level, these started from a very low level, with just 85 million euros spent in the fifth framework programme (FP5) between 1998-2002. The last EC funding tranches in FP7, at 381 million euros - just 0.05 percent of the estimated costs of brain disorders.

To make matters worse, the pharmaceutical industry has begun turning its back on brain disorder research in the face of stricter central nervous system drugs regulation and disappointing financial returns. "Political action could... include simplification of procedures, reducing bureaucracy or perhaps prolonging patents for drugs for brain diseases," the study says.

The costs of each disorder vary widely. Neuromuscular disorders, for instance, cost just over 30,000 euros per patient each year, compared to headaches at 285 euros.

Sleep disorders cost 348 euros per patient per year - but almost 45 million people suffer from them, compared to the 500,000 people who suffer from multiple sclerosis and the 200,000 with brain tumors.

The total annual cost of mood disorders - which include major depression and bipolar disorder - each year is the highest of the 19 groups, estimated at just over 113 billion, followed by dementia at 105 billion.

Europe's lack of focus on brain diseases, its authors add, is reflected in the curricula of medical schools and health care educational institutions, where concepts are often "inappropriate and outdated, neglecting in some places entirely the size and burden of disorders of the brain". Students, meanwhile, spend as little as 8 percent of their clinical studies in neurological and psychiatric departments.

The authors conclude with a bombshell of their own. Their cost estimates, they argue, are "very conservative" and almost certainly an underestimation, due to certain data not being available or fully verifiable.

Without urgent action, the situation can only worsen.

"We have to emphasize that the burden of disorder of the brain will likely increase further, simply due to the continuing life expectancy in Europe," they say. "Because of the aging European population, degenerative disorders are particularly destined to become more common, such as dementia, Parkinson's disease and stroke, but anxiety and mood disorders are also very prevalent at high age."

¹ Gustavsson, A., et al.

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