Cost of "Brain Disorders" In Europe Hits $1T Euro Equivalent

From Huffington Post. No images, but what they call "brain disorders" are just mental illnesses ranging from insomnia to schizophrenia. If you lived in their society, were wrapped in bubble wrap (silly safety rules) to protect yourself from any injury or experience, didn't have constitutional rights of any kind, and were chronically unemployed for generations with no hope in sight, wouldn't you become paranoid, schizophrenic, depressed, anxious, and/or maybe suicidal?

"The annual cost of brain disorders in Europe has soared to 798 billion euros ($1 trillion) and the region is facing a political, social and financial "ticking bomb" as more people fall prey to mental illnesses, researchers said on Tuesday.

A study by the European Brain Council (EBC) said the bill for disorders such as depression, anxiety, insomnia and dementia, will rise as people live longer, making it "the number one economic challenge for European health care."

The cost projection comes in the wake of a study last month that found that Europeans are plagued by mental and neurological illnesses with almost 165 million people, or 38 percent of the European Union population, suffering each year.

The 798 billion euro figure -- which equates to 1,550 euros ($2,000) per person in Europe -- is more than double the estimate made by a previous EBC study, 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," said the report by experts in Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden and across Europe.

They called for a major increase in research funding and resources to help fend off the threat.

Some big drug companies, in Europe particularly GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, have been backing away from investment into research on how the brain works and affects behavior, putting the onus on governments and health charities to stump up funding for neuroscience.

LACK OF DRUG SUCCESS

Experts say stricter European regulations for drugs with an effect on the central nervous system have been partly to blame, as has the industry's recent lack of success in developing effective brain disease medicines.

The trend of pharmaceutical companies leaving Europe in favor of the United States, China and India has also undermined the industry's private-public co-operation with the European Commission, the Brain Council's report said.

The study looked at more than 100 mental and neurological disorders -- ranging from headaches, migraines and sleep disorders to strokes, Parkinson's disease, psychotic disorders and dementia -- and described their economic and social impact as "immense and expanding."

The cost of brain disorders is substantially higher than other long-term or chronic illnesses like heart disease or cancer. The European Heart Network set the EU cost of cardiovascular disease at 192 billion euros in 2008, while the total annual cancer cost is estimated at 150-250 billion euros.

Without action, the situation can only get worse, the report said.

"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."

The EBC study was conducted by epidemiologist and health economists and was more wide-ranging that the previous one in 2005, this time covering 30 countries, compared to 28, and taking in 19 diagnostic groups of disorders rather than 12.

It found that in 2010, direct healthcare costs of brain disorders -- covering things like doctors' visits, hospital care and drugs -- accounted for 24 percent of the European Union's total healthcare expenditure, which is estimated at about 1,260 billion euros for 2010.

Indirect costs such as loss of productivity because of absence from work or enforced early retirement, add "considerably" to this, the report said.

The World Health Organization estimates that brain diseases cause 35 percent of the burden of all disease in Europe.

According to the EBC, the costs of each disorder vary widely, with neuromuscular disorders costing just over 30,000 euros a patient a year, compared to headaches at 285 euros.

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

Sleep disorders cost 348 euros per patient per year -- but their burden is high because almost 45 million people suffer from them, compared to around 500,000 with multiple sclerosis. ($1 = 0.733 Euros)"

You want to see where Obamacare will lead us? Here it is--Obama's administration is trying desperately to mimic this kind of medical access and treatment, and look where it's going for THEM...and eventually us if it passes muster with the Supreme Court. But uber-liberal Europe got what they wanted: a compliant, controllable sheeple crowd that would all be doped up on dome sort of drug or other, programmed to continually vote in their equivalent of the Liberal Democrat party, so the wheels keep spinning. Do you see OUR future here? I do, and this is why I'm so adamantly against Obamacare.

...and brain council? Yep--they have some sort of council or panel devoted to every organ in the body. We think we have too much government, and death panels on the way? They've got one for every freakin' organ! We've got things like Aricept for Alzheimer's, Zoloft and fish oil for depression, all manner of drugs for schizophrenia, Lunesta and melatonin for insomnia, and if Obamacare becomes law of the land, we could lose it all and expect to eventually become a zombie population just like the Brits...and just like the Powers That Be want us to become. If we want to play along, the cost for admission is $795/year.

Has anyone over there checked into DIETARY reasons for all this illness? Oh wait--they're still playing the old Food Guide Pyramid, erroneous lipid-hypothesis, faulty BMI song-and-dance. Thanks, Ancel Keys!! (Unfortunately, Ancel was an American)

Next, they'll all be taxing saturated fat just like the Danes, causing MORE mental problems.

This just slays me: "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." They aren't HERE, and guess why?