The Staggering Costs of Dementia

The human cost is awful. But the financial cost is much worse than people think.

by Nicholas Stehle
September 11, 2015

The costs associated with dementia are rising.  The monetary losses attributed to dementia are expected to reach $1,000,000,000,000 (that's one trillion U.S. dollars per anum) within three years. The current human toll is nearly 47,000,000 afflicted: forty-seven million lives stricken with the grief and suffering that is brought on by confusion, memory loss, and reduced capabilities. That doesn't count their caretakers and loved ones.

The loss of human capital is staggering. These are people, after all: people with skills and expertise and countless gifts lost not only to themselves and their families but to society. There is no way to quantify that, much less what might have been had they not bee stricken.

Virtually all of us know someone whose life has been dramatically affected by Alzheimer's or Vascular Dementia. The developing world is predicted to see an increase in cases going forward.

From Yahoo Health:

In a report issued on Tuesday, researchers…