The Invisible Epidemic: Not the Heart, but the Nervous System is Now the Main Concern

Prof. Dr. Tamás Dóczi, the professional leader of TINL, gave an interview to HVG about the rapid increase in neurological diseases and possible solutions.

An aging population, environmental pollution, pandemics, and even the internet: these factors, among others, have contributed to the dramatic rise in the number of people suffering from neurological diseases worldwide, including in Hungary. While cardiovascular diseases still receive significant attention, neurological disorders have become far more prevalent, according to Prof. Dr. Tamás Dóczi, neurosurgeon, professor emeritus at the University of Pécs, and full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

A comprehensive survey from 2021, based on disability-adjusted data, revealed that between 1990 and 2021, the number of years lost due to neurological diseases globally increased by 18%, from 375 million to 443 million years.
This calculation estimates the number of healthy years lost as a result of developing a neurological condition. According to data from the World Health Organization, more than three billion people worldwide suffer from neurological diseases, a staggering number.

This situation places a huge societal and financial burden on healthcare systems.
In a 2011 study, Swedish physician Anders Gustavsson highlighted that the treatment of neurological diseases in Europe cost 798 billion euros in 2010. This enormous figure significantly outweighs the financial resources allocated to more widely recognized conditions such as cardiovascular and cancer diseases: the former required an annual expenditure of 192 billion euros according to 2008 data, while the latter accounted for about 150–250 billion euros. In total, non-neurological diseases represented a cost of 500 billion euros.

The phenomenon, often referred to as the "invisible epidemic" by healthcare experts, was examined with the assistance of Dr. Tamás Dóczi, who, as the professional leader of the Translational Neuroscience National Laboratory (TINL), is working on improving the treatment possibilities for the most common neurological diseases (e.g., stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease).

The full article is available at:
https://hvg.hu/360/20250325_neurologia-nepbetegseg-keringesi-betegseg