U.S. Burden of Neurodegenerative Disease

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Neurodegenerative disease arises when nerve cells in the brain or other parts of the nervous system lose function and eventually die. Currently available treatments may relieve some of the associated symptoms, but there are no known cures.
 
Neurodegenerative disease (Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias or ADRD, Parkinson’s disease and motor neuron diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, spinal muscular atrophy, hereditary spastic paraplegia, primary lateral sclerosis, progressive muscular atrophy, and pseudobulbar palsy) collectively affected 4.7 to 6.0 million individuals in the U.S. between 2016-2017. These diseases were responsible for 272,644 deaths and 3,011,484 disability adjusted life years in 2016.