The European Brain Council (EBC) is carrying out a new Study for 2015-2017 on the “Value of Treatment:  Bridging the Early Diagnosis and Treatment Gap for Brain Disorders”.

The main objective of the VoT project for brain disorders is to assess the socio-economic impact of interventions (clinical practice), or the lack thereof, and to provide evidence and tools that can assist policy makers and healthcare actors in shaping effective policy responses to some of the most prevalent brain disorders. With this new “Cost Study”,  EBC will also be able to determine how timely treatment pathways are likely to need greater integration and how better collaboration can be set up in the future for the benefit of those living with a brain disorder.

The Value of Treatment research project is building on the EBC Report “The Economic Cost of Brain Disorders in Europe” published in 2005 (Balak and Elmaci 2007) and updated in 2010 (Gustavsson et al. 2011) that provided a solid estimation on the economic costs of brain disorders in Europe. The indirect costs of brain disorders make up for 40 percent of the total costs – which EBC estimated at around 800 billion euros per year in Europe.

More details on the progress made in the first semester of 2016 can be found in the January – June newsletter.