Moscow, Oct 14 (PTI) The number of deaths due toneurological disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson'sdisease, stroke and epilepsy has increased globally by over36 per cent in the past 25 years, according to a studypublished in The Lancet journal.
Neurological disorders (NDs) are the leading cause ofdeath and disability in the world today, said Vasily Vlassov,Professor at National Research University Higher School ofEconomics in Russia.
In 2015, they ranked as the leading cause group of DALYs(disability adjusted life years), comprising 10.2 per cent ofglobal DALYs, and the second-leading cause group of deaths,comprising 16.8 per cent of global deaths.
The most prevalent neurological disorders were tension-type headaches (about 1,500 million cases), migraine (about1,000 million), medication overuse headaches (about 60million), and Alzheimer's disease and other dementias (about46 million cases).
Between 1990 and 2015, the number of deaths fromneurological disorders increased by 36.7 per cent, and thenumber of DALYs by 7.4 per cent.
One of the main reasons for the increase in neurologicaldisorders is longer life expectancy.
People live longer and, accordingly, suffer dementiasmore often than several decades ago, Vlassov said.
Another reason is a growing population. The more people,the more diseases are registered.
Considering the number of cases per 100,000 people, thereis a positive tendency - age-standardised rates of deaths andDALYs caused by NDs decreased by 26 and 29.7 per centrespectively between 1990 and 2015, researchers said.
Stroke and communicable neurological disorders wereresponsible for most of these decreases, in addition toimproved life standards, health care and medicine researchdevelopment.
"But communicable neurological disorders in low-incomecountries are replaced by chronic NDs in the high-incomeones. Death rates are falling, while the burden of non-mortalsufferings in a long life with a disease grows," saidVlassov.
The rates of cases per 100,000 people increased in suchdiseases as Parkinson's (by 15.7 per cent), Alzheimer's (2.4per cent), motor neuron disease (3.1 per cent), and brain andnervous system cancers (8.9 per cent).
Neurological diseases are widespread both in high-incomeand low-income countries.
High-income countries, as well as Latin Americancountries have the lowest rates of DALYs (less than 3,000 per100,000 people) and deaths (less than 100 per 100,000) due toND, researchers said.
The highest rates (over 7,000 and over 280 per 100,000people respectively) were estimated for Afghanistan andseveral African countries. PTI SARSAR.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.