Cost of Brain Disorders in Italy – A Review

Maura Pugliatti, Paola Cossu, Patrik Sobocki, Ettore Beghi
European Neurological Review, 2009;4(2):120-124
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Abstract

Brain disorders represent 35% of the total disease burden in Europe and 37% of the total disease burden in European regions with very low child mortality and low adult mortality; the latter group includes Italy. The negative socioeconomic impact of this burden is reflected in two fundamental issues: consumption of resources and state of health. In recent years, the European Brain Council (EBC), a co-ordinating council formed by European organisations and patient associations in neurological disorders, has encouraged and supported projects aimed at analysing the socioeconomic burden of brain disorders in Europe. Within the EBC, the pan-European study on Cost of Disorders of the Brain in Europe (CDBE) aimed at reporting the best possible estimates of the societal cost of 12 brain disorders (addiction, affective disorders, anxiety disorders, tumours, dementia, epilepsy, migraine and other headaches, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, psychotic disorders, stroke and trauma) based on the existing literature, using an ad hoc cost model. The aggregated results for Italy from the CDBE study are reviewed in this paper.

Acknowledgements: The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the European Brain Council on behalf of the Cost of Disorders of the Brain in Europe Study Group.
Keywords
Brain disorders, cost, societal perspective, health economics, Italy
Disclosure The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Received: January 09, 2009 Accepted July 23, 2009
Correspondence: Maura Pugliatti, Clinica Neurologica, University of Sassari, Viale San Pietro 10, 07100 Sassari, Italy. E: maurap@uniss.it

Brain disorders represent 35% of the total disease burden in Europe and 37% of the total disease burden in European regions with very low child mortality and low adult mortality; the latter group includes Italy.1 The negative socioeconomic impact of this burden is reflected in two fundamental issues: consumption of resources and state of health.2

In recent years, the European Brain Council (EBC), a co-ordinating council formed by European organisations in psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, basic neuroscience and European patient associations, has encouraged and supported projects aimed at analysing the socioeconomic burden of brain disorders in Europe. These initiatives were ultimately intended to provide recommendations on research, teaching and awareness in public health.

Within the EBC, the pan-European study on Cost of Disorders of the Brain in Europe (CDBE) aimed at reporting the best possible estimates of the cost of 12 brain disorders (addiction, affective disorders, anxiety disorders, tumours, dementia, epilepsy, migraine and other headaches, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, psychotic disorders, stroke and trauma) based on the existing literature, using an ad hoc cost model.3 Other disorders of the brain, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and neuromuscular and developmental disorders, were not included in the CDBE because of heterogeneity or lack of epidemiological and/or cost data.

In the CDBE, costs were assessed under a societal perspective. Included were healthcare costs regardless of who pays (the individual, a private insurer or the public through taxes and social insurance), as well as costs outside the medical sector.

The aggregated results for Italy from the CDBE study have been published elsewhere4 and are reviewed in this article.

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