America Sags Under Burden of Neurological Diseases

According to results of a study, one in every thousand americans suffers from multiple sclerosis; a drastic increase over the last years.

It is a research that throws light on the extent of neurological ailments in the land of dreams.

Compiling data from reams of medical research, Deborah Hirtz, and colleagues from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke analyzed 12 of the most common and treated neurological diseases in the country.

The team focused on research data from the last 15 years and indexed the diseases according to various factors including scope and diagnostic precision.

Results were published in the journal Neurology.

According to results of the study, one in every thousand Americans suffers from multiple sclerosis (MS).

What is disturbing is that this figure has shot up by 50 percent from the last comprehensive review conducted in 1982.

Yet says Hirtz, "Whether this reflects improvement in diagnosis or whether incidence is actually increasing deserves further study."

Tagging behind is the statistics for Alzheimer’s disease. It is observed that 67 out of every 1000 elderly persons aged above 65 years in America, suffer from the disease. This too is a substantial increase according to the researchers.

Other figures include stroke and Parkinson’s disease having same rates of incidence as 10 in every 1000 persons.

Yet the scientists note no changes in rates of cerebral palsy, epilepsy, migraine, ALS, or Parkinson's disease.

Source-Medindia
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