Alzheimer's Disease - Costs

It should not come as a surprise that with the 6.1 million European currently living with the disease, the societal costs of dementia in the EU are enormous. If treatment remains the same, with predicted prevalence rates, the cost in the EU alone will rise from €130 billion  in 2008 to €200 billion by 2030. These estimates are based on two types of cost calculations, direct medical and non-medical costs (such as hospital care and drugs) and informal costs (such as production losses of patients and of unpaid informal carers). Moreover informal care adds substantially to the total cost of dementia and the quantification of informal cost is crucial for any cost estimates. In the USA a similar analysis for direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer's and other dementias amount to more than $150 billion annually. Moreover, Americans currently spent > then $90 billion on beneficiaries with Alzheimer's and other dementias per year, a figure that is projected to more than double to $189 billion by 2015.