Neurology: a global crisis, with an annual cost of 20 billion in Italia

Squares, monuments and buildings lit up in blue to raise awareness of the importance of brain health. Because on World Neurology Day (which falls today, 22 July), the challenge is to bring one of the major health, social and scientific issues back to the forefront of public debate: brain health. This issue is being promoted by the Italian Society of Neurology, which highlights how neurological diseases now represent a global emergency, particularly in light of data from the World Health Organisation’s Global Burden of Disease Study, which indicates that 3.4 billion people are affected and that these diseases are the leading global cause of ill health and disability.

“Neurology is a vast and complex discipline. It deals not only with emergencies and urgent cases – that is, time-sensitive conditions such as stroke – but also with extremely complex chronic conditions: multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s disease and headaches,” emphasises Mario Zappia , president of the Italian Society of Neurology. “These are conditions that can last for decades, and treatment plans often need to be gradually updated in line with patients’ needs. They require highly specialised expertise, not only for identification and diagnosis, but also for treatment over time.”

The impact is also significant in Italia: over a million people are living with some form of dementia, around 300,000 with Parkinson’s disease, and 144,000 with multiple sclerosis. Added to these figures is stroke, one of the leading causes of death and disability: every year in Italy, around 90,000 new cases of stroke are recorded. The health, social and economic impact is also significant, amounting to more than 20 billion euros a year in healthcare costs, care provision and lost productivity, with increasingly serious consequences for families, carers and the sustainability of the National Health Service.

Alongside diagnosis, treatment and patient care, there is prevention, which is regarded as ‘one of the most innovative areas of contemporary neurology’. ‘Prevention is something new in the field of neurology,’ adds Zappia. ‘In neurology, it has often been given little consideration, probably because many diseases were thought to have an inevitable course. But today we know, for example, that in the context of dementia, 45 per cent of risk factors are modifiable.’ This is why brain health is so central: “Brain health means looking after this vital organ, even in the absence of a neurological condition,” he concludes. “The prevention campaigns we are planning together with other institutions and partners will target the entire population, particularly young people. We are confident that, over time, we will be able to achieve the same results that prevention campaigns have achieved in relation to other diseases.”