Europe and the rest of the world are facing a “pandemic” of neurological diseases, says Elena Moro, the President of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN), with the economic burden of neurological diseases in Europe alone estimated at €1,7 trillion in 2020.
This figure – covering the costs of medical care, rehabilitation, lost productivity, and caregiving for individuals with neurological diseases including Parkinson’s – is more than the combined costs of cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes, according to the EAN.
“That is a massive cost that we cannot afford because the same neurodegenerative diseases are increasing, and the number of neurologists is decreasing,” says Moro. “How can you treat or manage all these people living with their neurological disorder if you don’t start thinking about prevention or managing the diseases a little better?”
Keen to help tackle this immense challenge, the EAN decided to play a more proactive role in improving brain health in Europe.
Moro explains that the idea came to fruition around four years ago, when Claudio Bassetti was EAN president. “He wrote a paper in which he stressed the need for a holistic approach to the brain,” she says.
“We decided to start in a very structured way, with people dedicated to developing a specific plan, which has been published and has five pillars,” says Moro.
The EAN’s Brain Health Mission plan
The EAN’s strategy for improving brain health was published in the European Journal of Neurology in January this year, in an article called “A roadmap toward promoting and improving brain health in Europe and closing the awareness and funding gap”. Its five pillars were listed as: “advancing a global brain health approach; supporting policymaking; fostering research; promoting education; and raising awareness of prevention and treatment”.
Of these, Moro highlights the need for more brain research as particularly important: “There’s a lot of areas that we don’t understand very well. We need to pin down all these determinants of health, and especially brain health, and how to be more effective in dealing with that.
“If we invest a little more in research, in understanding these basic areas, we will take the advantage in preventing and in making neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, less disabling.”
Brain health matters
“What is written in the roadmap is the framework, right now we are starting to fill the framework with initiatives that we think are the preliminary important action to build further on it,” says Moro. “We have established quite practical initiatives, and we are building on this.”
One of the EAN’s activities, Moro explains, is to work very closely with Europe’s 48 national neurological societies and support them in persuading their respective governments of the urgent need to develop and implement a brain health plan for every European country.
“In Europe, only three countries have a brain health plan. One is Norway. One is Italy, and the other is Switzerland. So, you can imagine that there’s a lot of work to do,” she says.
Moro also adds that each country will need a different plan according to their specific characteristics and population.
“It is different if you live in Norway, or if you live in Egypt, for example. Some cultural factors such as religion, and environmental factors will be different. Several factors have to be taken into account.”
The EAN is also working hard to get global governments to pay attention to brain health. “We went to the G7 last year in Italy; we are going to the G7 in Canada [in June]. We are working with the American Academy, and with the World Neurological Federation, the main international neurological society, to stimulate this area at a political level.”
The message to governments is this, says Moro: “The brain is an investment. You have a treasure, you have to invest in your citizens, and the best way to invest is to preserve their brains, because without the brain, there’s nothing, no economy, nothing.”
The EAN will also spread this message at the EAN Congress in Finland this June. “We have 9,000 people coming, all the neurologists in the societies in Europe. We have several initiatives during the Congress, especially concentrating on the younger generation.”
The EAN, along with partners in the Brain Health Mission, is also working to support the WHO’s 10-year Intersectoral Global Action Plan for Epilepsy and other Neurological Disorders (iGAP), which aims to address the burden of epilepsy and other neurological disorders and improve access to care and treatment for affected individuals, families, and communities worldwide, as well as raise awareness and reduce stigma.
Asked if governments are realising the urgency of the need to improve brain health, Moro says: “I think they’re realising that this is very serious, because the costs [of neurological diseases] are increasing, the number of people living is increasing, and we are not increasing as neurologists. There’s no other solution visible to cope with this neurological pandemic.”
