Despite decades of effort, finding a cure or breakthrough treatments for Alzheimer's has eluded researchers. About 5 million Americans suffer from this devastating disease-the most common cause of dementia among older people-while globally an estimated 35.6 million people struggle with it. In this thematic issue of Health Affairs, we explore the many subjects raised by Alzheimer's disease: the optimal care patients receive and the testing of new models, international comparisons of how the disease is treated, families' end-of-life dilemmas, a new public-private research collaboration designed to produce improved treatments, and others. The cost of care for Americans with dementia purchased in the market and informally at home was estimated in a RAND report to have totaled between $159 billion and $215 billion in 2010. Even the lower estimate is greater than the direct treatment costs of cancer or heart disease.
展开▼
