Dementia care costs continue to rise, initiative brings research funding

In April 2013 the Rand Corporation and the University of Michigan conducted a study on dementia – an ailment that most commonly manifests itself as Alzheimer’s disease.  Alzheimer’s causes the loss of brain function affecting behavior, judgment, language, memory, and thinking.  The study estimates that 15% of Americans older than 70 have dementia.  Nationally, the cost for caring for dementia patients has reached $109 billion annually.

On April 2, 2013, President Obama announced an initiative called BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies), which is intended to spend $100 million to better research the interactions between brain cells and neurological circuits.  When he announced the BRAIN Initiative President Obama said: “We have a chance to improve the lives of not just millions, but billions of people on this planet through the research that’s done in this BRAIN Initiative alone.  But it’s going to require a serious effort, a sustained effort.  And it’s going to require us as a country to embody and embrace that spirit of discovery that is what made America, America.”
Scientists and doctors suggest that the need to create treatments for Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases is critically urgent.  “We need more research into interventions to delay or halt the onset of dementia.  Right now we don’t really have anything at all.  The problem is going to grow rapidly,” says Michael Hurd, an author of the study and the director of Rand Corporation’s Center of the Study of Aging.  Presently, researchers know little about what causes brain disorders.  By 2030, it is estimated that 65.7 million Americans will have Alzheimer’s disease.
There is so much that remains unknown about the human mind.  The BRAIN Initiative and continued research and effort towards understanding diseases of the human brain are worthwhile goals.  “The human brain is the most complicated biological structure in the known universe.  We’ve only just scratched the surface in understanding how it works – or, unfortunately, doesn’t quite work when disorders and disease occur… This is just the beginning of a 12-year journey and we’re excited to be starting the ride,” says National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
Sources:
“Dementia care costs reach $109b, and are expected to double,” by Ryan Flinn. Bloomberg News, April 5, 2013.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/BRAIN

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