Abstract
In the next few decades, brain medicine will present a particular socioeconomic challenge for ageing citizens worldwide. Many disorders and ailments that affect the brain—including Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, dementia and stroke—are chronic conditions that persist for years or even decades. In addition, many of these disorders have devastating effects, which together create a substantial burden on society: about one‐third of the global disease burden can be attributed to disorders of the brain or nervous system (Olesen & Leonardi, 2003; Andlin‐Sobocki et al , 2005). In the USA alone, there are as many as 5.5 million individuals with Alzheimer disease, 1.5 million with Parkinson disease and 400,000 with multiple sclerosis. These devastating diseases not only place a heavy emotional burden on patients and their care‐givers, but also have an important economic impact. > …about one‐third of the global disease burden can be attributed to disorders of the brain or nervous system Unfortunately, this tremendous socioeconomic problem is worsening, because the risk of suffering from a brain disease increases with age, and life expectancy is increasing worldwide, particularly in developed countries. In the case of Alzheimer disease, for example, ∼10% of US citizens aged over 65 years are affected, the prevalence rate has more than doubled since 1980 and it could increase twofold to threefold by 2050 if the current trend continues (Alzheimer's Association, 2006). Unfortunately, research has had little impact on these statistics. Despite vigorous efforts from both the pharmaceutical industry and biomedical researchers, there are still no disease‐modifying treatments available for Alzheimer disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke and a range of other neurological disorders. Some have argued that this problem cannot be solved by standard high‐throughput target‐based drug discovery methods, because we simply do not know which mechanisms to target. Instead, we should revert to previous empirical models of drug …
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