Neurology Reviews

The monoclonal antibody donanemab (Eli Lilly) significantly slows cognitive and functional decline for patients with early, symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease, compared with placebo, results of a phase 3 study showed.

“This trial demonstrates that an antiamyloid drug significantly slows the disease and provides meaningful benefit to patients, and we’re hoping that with approval, we will be able to make that drug available,” said Mark Mintun, MD, VP, pain and neurodegeneration research, Eli Lilly.

At a press briefing highlighting the new results, Maria Carrillo, PhD, chief science officer, Alzheimer’s Association, noted the “palpable excitement” surrounding this new study, which follows on the heels of other promising antiamyloid research. “This is the decade of Alzheimer’s disease, and it will get better from here,” she said.

The findings were presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference and were published online in JAMA.
 

Primary, secondary endpoints met

The TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2 study included 1,736 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild dementia for whom PET showed evidence of amyloid and tau pathology. The mean age of the participants was 73 years, and most of the participants were White.

Participants were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or donanemab, an investigational IgG1 monoclonal antibody directed against an insoluble, modified, N-terminal, truncated form of beta-amyloid. Donanemab was administered at a dose of 700 mg for the first three doses and 1,400 mg thereafter. The drug was administered intravenously every 4 weeks for up to 72 weeks.

Researchers stratified patients on the basis of the amount of tau, a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease progression, into a low/medium tau group and a combined tau group (low/medium and high tau).

The primary endpoint was change from baseline to 76 weeks on the integrated Alzheimer’s Disease Rating Scale (iADRS), which measures cognition and activities of daily living.

In those with low/medium tau levels, the least squares mean (LSM) change in iADRS score was −6.02 (95% confidence interval, −7.01 to −5.03) in the donanemab group and −9.27 (95% CI, −10.23 to −8.31) in the placebo group (difference, 3.25; 95% CI, 1.88 – 4.62; P < .001), representing a 35.1% slowing of disease progression.

In the combined (tau) population, LSM change in iADRS was −10.19 (95% CI, −11.22 to −9.16) in the donanemab group and −13.11 (95% CI, −14.10 to −12.13) in the placebo group (difference, 2.92; 95% CI, 1.51 – 4.33; P < .001), representing a 22.3% slowing of disease progression.

The study also met all secondary endpoints regarding measurements of cognitive and functional decline, including the Clinical Dementia Rating–Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB), which showed 36% slowing of decline (P < .0001) over 18 months.

The authors noted that the changes on these scales were clinically meaningful (considered to be > 20% slowing of clinical progression) for both the low/medium tau and combined populations.
 

Greater benefit with lower tau

However, patients with low/medium tau generally demonstrated effect size estimates that were larger than those of the overall population, which suggests there’s greater benefit when amyloid-lowering therapies are initiated at an earlier disease stage, the investigators noted.

Additional support for clinical relevance was a 38.6% risk reduction of disease progression, as measured on the CDR–Global Score.

In addition, participants who received the active drug benefited in terms of activities of daily living, as demonstrated by 40% less decline (P < .0001) on the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study–Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Inventory.

Donanemab significantly reduced brain amyloid plaque: 80% (low/medium tau population) and 76% (combined population) of participants achieved amyloid clearance at 76 weeks. The intervention was also associated with a greater decrease in whole-brain volume.

The treatment effect continued to widen after patients were switched to placebo, as evidenced on PET scan at 6 or 12 months, said Dr. Mintun.

The effects of the drug were similar among men and women but were especially pronounced among younger participants, with a 48% slowing on iADRS and a 45% slowing on CDR-SB in those younger than 75 years.
 

Safety issues

However, the drug is not without some safety concerns. Amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIAs) occurred in 36.8% of the treatment group versus 14.9% of the placebo group, and in 40.6% of patients who were homozygous for apo E4 and received the drug. Microhemorrhage occurred in 26.8% in the donanemab group versus 12.5% in the placebo group.

Most ARIA cases were mild to moderate and resolved or stabilized with appropriate management. However, three deaths were determined to be drug related among participants who developed serious ARIAs or brain bleeding and swelling.

An important study limitation was that it enrolled primarily White patients (91.5%), which may limit generalizability to other populations, and the age limit was 85 years, which some believe is an inadequate representation of older adults. In addition, the 18-month treatment window limits the long-term understanding of donanemab’s benefits and side effects.

Eli Lilly has filed a submission to the Food and Drug Administration. If approved, donanemab will be the third antiamyloid monoclonal antibody to receive this status, following aducanumab (Aduhelm) and lecanemab (Leqembi).
 

Strongest data yet

Commenting on the study findings, Percy Griffin, PhD, director of scientific engagement, Alzheimer’s Association, said these new results are “very, very exciting” and represent “the strongest data to-date” for antiamyloid monoclonal antibodies in Alzheimer’s disease.

“A good percentage of individuals on the drug actually saw a complete clearance of amyloid, and some had to be taken off the drug, because if you’re on an antiamyloid drug and there’s no amyloid, what are you going for?”

He noted that the study had some unique aspects, including using tau-PET “to see whether or not the drug is more effective in subpopulations.”

Access to this and other antiamyloid therapies should be a priority, said Dr. Griffin. “We have to make sure people who have the potential to benefit from these treatments do.”

The Alzheimer’s Association is calling for Medicare beneficiaries who are living with the disease to receive the same coverage afforded to those with other diseases.

“The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services policy to block Medicare access to FDA-approved Alzheimer’s disease treatments is in stark contrast to scientific evidence, is unprecedented and must be reversed immediately,” Joanne Pike, DrPH, president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association, said in a press release.

Also important is tracking the longitudinal performance of these drugs outside of clinical trials, said Dr. Griffin. “Not everyone is going to be in that Goldilocks zone of being able to see a doctor whenever they want and have access to these PET and MRI tools and other things used in clinical trials.”

He noted that the Alzheimer’s Association is leading a network for diagnostics and therapeutics (ALZ-NET) that will track the performance of novel FDA-approved Alzheimer’s disease therapies “in the real world.”

While these are exciting findings for antiamyloid therapy, “we can’t take our foot off the gas, we need more therapies that target different aspects of the disease biology,” said Dr. Griffin.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

The monoclonal antibody donanemab (Eli Lilly) significantly slows cognitive and functional decline for patients with early, symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease, compared with placebo, results of a phase 3 study showed.

“This trial demonstrates that an antiamyloid drug significantly slows the disease and provides meaningful benefit to patients, and we’re hoping that with approval, we will be able to make that drug available,” said Mark Mintun, MD, VP, pain and neurodegeneration research, Eli Lilly.

At a press briefing highlighting the new results, Maria Carrillo, PhD, chief science officer, Alzheimer’s Association, noted the “palpable excitement” surrounding this new study, which follows on the heels of other promising antiamyloid research. “This is the decade of Alzheimer’s disease, and it will get better from here,” she said.

The findings were presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference and were published online in JAMA.
 

Primary, secondary endpoints met

The TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2 study included 1,736 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild dementia for whom PET showed evidence of amyloid and tau pathology. The mean age of the participants was 73 years, and most of the participants were White.

Participants were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or donanemab, an investigational IgG1 monoclonal antibody directed against an insoluble, modified, N-terminal, truncated form of beta-amyloid. Donanemab was administered at a dose of 700 mg for the first three doses and 1,400 mg thereafter. The drug was administered intravenously every 4 weeks for up to 72 weeks.

Researchers stratified patients on the basis of the amount of tau, a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease progression, into a low/medium tau group and a combined tau group (low/medium and high tau).

The primary endpoint was change from baseline to 76 weeks on the integrated Alzheimer’s Disease Rating Scale (iADRS), which measures cognition and activities of daily living.

In those with low/medium tau levels, the least squares mean (LSM) change in iADRS score was −6.02 (95% confidence interval, −7.01 to −5.03) in the donanemab group and −9.27 (95% CI, −10.23 to −8.31) in the placebo group (difference, 3.25; 95% CI, 1.88 – 4.62; P < .001), representing a 35.1% slowing of disease progression.

In the combined (tau) population, LSM change in iADRS was −10.19 (95% CI, −11.22 to −9.16) in the donanemab group and −13.11 (95% CI, −14.10 to −12.13) in the placebo group (difference, 2.92; 95% CI, 1.51 – 4.33; P < .001), representing a 22.3% slowing of disease progression.

The study also met all secondary endpoints regarding measurements of cognitive and functional decline, including the Clinical Dementia Rating–Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB), which showed 36% slowing of decline (P < .0001) over 18 months.

The authors noted that the changes on these scales were clinically meaningful (considered to be > 20% slowing of clinical progression) for both the low/medium tau and combined populations.
 

Greater benefit with lower tau

However, patients with low/medium tau generally demonstrated effect size estimates that were larger than those of the overall population, which suggests there’s greater benefit when amyloid-lowering therapies are initiated at an earlier disease stage, the investigators noted.

Additional support for clinical relevance was a 38.6% risk reduction of disease progression, as measured on the CDR–Global Score.

In addition, participants who received the active drug benefited in terms of activities of daily living, as demonstrated by 40% less decline (P < .0001) on the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study–Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Inventory.

Donanemab significantly reduced brain amyloid plaque: 80% (low/medium tau population) and 76% (combined population) of participants achieved amyloid clearance at 76 weeks. The intervention was also associated with a greater decrease in whole-brain volume.

The treatment effect continued to widen after patients were switched to placebo, as evidenced on PET scan at 6 or 12 months, said Dr. Mintun.

The effects of the drug were similar among men and women but were especially pronounced among younger participants, with a 48% slowing on iADRS and a 45% slowing on CDR-SB in those younger than 75 years.
 

Safety issues

However, the drug is not without some safety concerns. Amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIAs) occurred in 36.8% of the treatment group versus 14.9% of the placebo group, and in 40.6% of patients who were homozygous for apo E4 and received the drug. Microhemorrhage occurred in 26.8% in the donanemab group versus 12.5% in the placebo group.

Most ARIA cases were mild to moderate and resolved or stabilized with appropriate management. However, three deaths were determined to be drug related among participants who developed serious ARIAs or brain bleeding and swelling.

An important study limitation was that it enrolled primarily White patients (91.5%), which may limit generalizability to other populations, and the age limit was 85 years, which some believe is an inadequate representation of older adults. In addition, the 18-month treatment window limits the long-term understanding of donanemab’s benefits and side effects.

Eli Lilly has filed a submission to the Food and Drug Administration. If approved, donanemab will be the third antiamyloid monoclonal antibody to receive this status, following aducanumab (Aduhelm) and lecanemab (Leqembi).
 

Strongest data yet

Commenting on the study findings, Percy Griffin, PhD, director of scientific engagement, Alzheimer’s Association, said these new results are “very, very exciting” and represent “the strongest data to-date” for antiamyloid monoclonal antibodies in Alzheimer’s disease.

“A good percentage of individuals on the drug actually saw a complete clearance of amyloid, and some had to be taken off the drug, because if you’re on an antiamyloid drug and there’s no amyloid, what are you going for?”

He noted that the study had some unique aspects, including using tau-PET “to see whether or not the drug is more effective in subpopulations.”

Access to this and other antiamyloid therapies should be a priority, said Dr. Griffin. “We have to make sure people who have the potential to benefit from these treatments do.”

The Alzheimer’s Association is calling for Medicare beneficiaries who are living with the disease to receive the same coverage afforded to those with other diseases.

“The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services policy to block Medicare access to FDA-approved Alzheimer’s disease treatments is in stark contrast to scientific evidence, is unprecedented and must be reversed immediately,” Joanne Pike, DrPH, president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association, said in a press release.

Also important is tracking the longitudinal performance of these drugs outside of clinical trials, said Dr. Griffin. “Not everyone is going to be in that Goldilocks zone of being able to see a doctor whenever they want and have access to these PET and MRI tools and other things used in clinical trials.”

He noted that the Alzheimer’s Association is leading a network for diagnostics and therapeutics (ALZ-NET) that will track the performance of novel FDA-approved Alzheimer’s disease therapies “in the real world.”

While these are exciting findings for antiamyloid therapy, “we can’t take our foot off the gas, we need more therapies that target different aspects of the disease biology,” said Dr. Griffin.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

The monoclonal antibody donanemab (Eli Lilly) significantly slows cognitive and functional decline for patients with early, symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease, compared with placebo, results of a phase 3 study showed.

“This trial demonstrates that an antiamyloid drug significantly slows the disease and provides meaningful benefit to patients, and we’re hoping that with approval, we will be able to make that drug available,” said Mark Mintun, MD, VP, pain and neurodegeneration research, Eli Lilly.

At a press briefing highlighting the new results, Maria Carrillo, PhD, chief science officer, Alzheimer’s Association, noted the “palpable excitement” surrounding this new study, which follows on the heels of other promising antiamyloid research. “This is the decade of Alzheimer’s disease, and it will get better from here,” she said.

The findings were presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference and were published online in JAMA.
 

Primary, secondary endpoints met

The TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2 study included 1,736 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild dementia for whom PET showed evidence of amyloid and tau pathology. The mean age of the participants was 73 years, and most of the participants were White.

Participants were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or donanemab, an investigational IgG1 monoclonal antibody directed against an insoluble, modified, N-terminal, truncated form of beta-amyloid. Donanemab was administered at a dose of 700 mg for the first three doses and 1,400 mg thereafter. The drug was administered intravenously every 4 weeks for up to 72 weeks.

Researchers stratified patients on the basis of the amount of tau, a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease progression, into a low/medium tau group and a combined tau group (low/medium and high tau).

The primary endpoint was change from baseline to 76 weeks on the integrated Alzheimer’s Disease Rating Scale (iADRS), which measures cognition and activities of daily living.

In those with low/medium tau levels, the least squares mean (LSM) change in iADRS score was −6.02 (95% confidence interval, −7.01 to −5.03) in the donanemab group and −9.27 (95% CI, −10.23 to −8.31) in the placebo group (difference, 3.25; 95% CI, 1.88 – 4.62; P < .001), representing a 35.1% slowing of disease progression.

In the combined (tau) population, LSM change in iADRS was −10.19 (95% CI, −11.22 to −9.16) in the donanemab group and −13.11 (95% CI, −14.10 to −12.13) in the placebo group (difference, 2.92; 95% CI, 1.51 – 4.33; P < .001), representing a 22.3% slowing of disease progression.

The study also met all secondary endpoints regarding measurements of cognitive and functional decline, including the Clinical Dementia Rating–Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB), which showed 36% slowing of decline (P < .0001) over 18 months.

The authors noted that the changes on these scales were clinically meaningful (considered to be > 20% slowing of clinical progression) for both the low/medium tau and combined populations.
 

Greater benefit with lower tau

However, patients with low/medium tau generally demonstrated effect size estimates that were larger than those of the overall population, which suggests there’s greater benefit when amyloid-lowering therapies are initiated at an earlier disease stage, the investigators noted.

Additional support for clinical relevance was a 38.6% risk reduction of disease progression, as measured on the CDR–Global Score.

In addition, participants who received the active drug benefited in terms of activities of daily living, as demonstrated by 40% less decline (P < .0001) on the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study–Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Inventory.

Donanemab significantly reduced brain amyloid plaque: 80% (low/medium tau population) and 76% (combined population) of participants achieved amyloid clearance at 76 weeks. The intervention was also associated with a greater decrease in whole-brain volume.

The treatment effect continued to widen after patients were switched to placebo, as evidenced on PET scan at 6 or 12 months, said Dr. Mintun.

The effects of the drug were similar among men and women but were especially pronounced among younger participants, with a 48% slowing on iADRS and a 45% slowing on CDR-SB in those younger than 75 years.
 

Safety issues

However, the drug is not without some safety concerns. Amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIAs) occurred in 36.8% of the treatment group versus 14.9% of the placebo group, and in 40.6% of patients who were homozygous for apo E4 and received the drug. Microhemorrhage occurred in 26.8% in the donanemab group versus 12.5% in the placebo group.

Most ARIA cases were mild to moderate and resolved or stabilized with appropriate management. However, three deaths were determined to be drug related among participants who developed serious ARIAs or brain bleeding and swelling.

An important study limitation was that it enrolled primarily White patients (91.5%), which may limit generalizability to other populations, and the age limit was 85 years, which some believe is an inadequate representation of older adults. In addition, the 18-month treatment window limits the long-term understanding of donanemab’s benefits and side effects.

Eli Lilly has filed a submission to the Food and Drug Administration. If approved, donanemab will be the third antiamyloid monoclonal antibody to receive this status, following aducanumab (Aduhelm) and lecanemab (Leqembi).
 

Strongest data yet

Commenting on the study findings, Percy Griffin, PhD, director of scientific engagement, Alzheimer’s Association, said these new results are “very, very exciting” and represent “the strongest data to-date” for antiamyloid monoclonal antibodies in Alzheimer’s disease.

“A good percentage of individuals on the drug actually saw a complete clearance of amyloid, and some had to be taken off the drug, because if you’re on an antiamyloid drug and there’s no amyloid, what are you going for?”

He noted that the study had some unique aspects, including using tau-PET “to see whether or not the drug is more effective in subpopulations.”

Access to this and other antiamyloid therapies should be a priority, said Dr. Griffin. “We have to make sure people who have the potential to benefit from these treatments do.”

The Alzheimer’s Association is calling for Medicare beneficiaries who are living with the disease to receive the same coverage afforded to those with other diseases.

“The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services policy to block Medicare access to FDA-approved Alzheimer’s disease treatments is in stark contrast to scientific evidence, is unprecedented and must be reversed immediately,” Joanne Pike, DrPH, president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association, said in a press release.

Also important is tracking the longitudinal performance of these drugs outside of clinical trials, said Dr. Griffin. “Not everyone is going to be in that Goldilocks zone of being able to see a doctor whenever they want and have access to these PET and MRI tools and other things used in clinical trials.”

He noted that the Alzheimer’s Association is leading a network for diagnostics and therapeutics (ALZ-NET) that will track the performance of novel FDA-approved Alzheimer’s disease therapies “in the real world.”

While these are exciting findings for antiamyloid therapy, “we can’t take our foot off the gas, we need more therapies that target different aspects of the disease biology,” said Dr. Griffin.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

Eastern and southeastern areas of the United States have the highest rates of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), new research shows.

Investigators at Rush University in Chicago found AD prevalence was highest in Maryland, New York, Mississippi, and Florida. At the county level, Miami-Dade in Florida, Baltimore city, and Bronx County in New York were among the U.S. counties with the highest prevalence of the disease.

Such geographical variations may be caused by the unique make-up of regional populations, study investigator Kumar Rajan, PhD, professor of medicine and director of Rush Institute for Healthy Aging, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, said in an interview.

Dr. Rajan presented the research at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.
 

High-impact research

An estimated 6.7 million Americans are living with AD, a figure that’s expected to double by 2050. Estimating the prevalence of Alzheimer’s across states’ counties can provide a better understanding of region-specific disease burden and have policy implications for resource allocation, Dr. Rajan noted.

To determine the state- and county-specific prevalence of AD, the researchers applied AD data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project, a population-based study that’s about 60% African American, to county- and state-level data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

“We used estimates in our study in Chicago, which began in the 1990s and has approximately 10,800 people, and projected those estimates to county-level populations to see what the variations look like,” said Dr. Rajan.

Of 3,142 counties in 50 states, the East and Southeastern regions of the United States had the highest AD prevalence. For states, the highest rates were in Maryland (12.9%), New York (12.7%), Mississippi (12.5%), and Florida (12.5%).

California and Illinois were also among the top 10 states with the highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s.

California had the highest number of residents, with 719,000 (95% confidence interval, 665,000-774,400), followed by Florida with 579,000 (95% CI, 539,900 to 620,000), and Texas with 459,000 (95% CI, 422,700 to 496,000).

The three counties with the highest prevalence, all with 16.6%, were Miami-Dade County, Baltimore city, and Bronx County.

One county in the top 10 for AD prevalence was El Paso, Tex., which Dr. Rajan found “a bit surprising,” as Texas was not among the top four states with the highest prevalence.

In addition to older age, what’s likely driving elevated AD prevalence in these areas is the substantially larger proportion of minority populations who are at higher risk for AD, possibly due to health disparities, said Dr. Rajan.

Determining local-level estimates of AD should have “a very high impact” on public health programs aimed at AD prevention, detection, and treatment, he said. In addition, as more AD drugs are approved, there will likely be county-level and even state-level implications for Medicare coverage.

In addition, these new findings could help physicians treating or caring for minority populations “understand the landscape of what the disease looks like,” said Dr. Rajan.

A limitation of the study was that it was based on data from a single study, he noted.

The next step is to expand this research. Dr. Rajan and others are establishing the Regional and Ethnic Variations in Alzheimer’s and Cognitive Health Consortium, with the goal of gaining a better understanding of AD prevalence across six U.S. regions.
 

Optimal resource distribution

In a comment, Percy Griffin, PhD, director of scientific engagement, Alzheimer’s Association, said the research provides useful information about AD prevalence at the local level.

“We need to understand how specific demographics and characteristics can help explain some of the high prevalence in certain areas.”

Compared with White Americans, Dr. Griffin noted that Black Americans are twice as likely to have AD, and older Hispanic Americans are 1.5 times as likely.

This new data will help pinpoint areas of high risk and high need so that funding, staffing, and other resources for those with AD and other dementias can be optimally distributed, he said.

“It gives us that kind of geographic specificity in terms of the prevalence so we can dig deeper and better allocate resources on a county level,” he added.

The Alzheimer’s Association “is fully committed to working with local agencies and being in the communities to assist them in their efforts to intervene in this disease.”

The study also highlights the need for more research to determine what factors other than age and race – such as potential environmental factors – might affect regional AD prevalence, he said.

The study received funding from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Rajan and Dr. Griffin reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Eastern and southeastern areas of the United States have the highest rates of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), new research shows.

Investigators at Rush University in Chicago found AD prevalence was highest in Maryland, New York, Mississippi, and Florida. At the county level, Miami-Dade in Florida, Baltimore city, and Bronx County in New York were among the U.S. counties with the highest prevalence of the disease.

Such geographical variations may be caused by the unique make-up of regional populations, study investigator Kumar Rajan, PhD, professor of medicine and director of Rush Institute for Healthy Aging, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, said in an interview.

Dr. Rajan presented the research at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.
 

High-impact research

An estimated 6.7 million Americans are living with AD, a figure that’s expected to double by 2050. Estimating the prevalence of Alzheimer’s across states’ counties can provide a better understanding of region-specific disease burden and have policy implications for resource allocation, Dr. Rajan noted.

To determine the state- and county-specific prevalence of AD, the researchers applied AD data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project, a population-based study that’s about 60% African American, to county- and state-level data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

“We used estimates in our study in Chicago, which began in the 1990s and has approximately 10,800 people, and projected those estimates to county-level populations to see what the variations look like,” said Dr. Rajan.

Of 3,142 counties in 50 states, the East and Southeastern regions of the United States had the highest AD prevalence. For states, the highest rates were in Maryland (12.9%), New York (12.7%), Mississippi (12.5%), and Florida (12.5%).

California and Illinois were also among the top 10 states with the highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s.

California had the highest number of residents, with 719,000 (95% confidence interval, 665,000-774,400), followed by Florida with 579,000 (95% CI, 539,900 to 620,000), and Texas with 459,000 (95% CI, 422,700 to 496,000).

The three counties with the highest prevalence, all with 16.6%, were Miami-Dade County, Baltimore city, and Bronx County.

One county in the top 10 for AD prevalence was El Paso, Tex., which Dr. Rajan found “a bit surprising,” as Texas was not among the top four states with the highest prevalence.

In addition to older age, what’s likely driving elevated AD prevalence in these areas is the substantially larger proportion of minority populations who are at higher risk for AD, possibly due to health disparities, said Dr. Rajan.

Determining local-level estimates of AD should have “a very high impact” on public health programs aimed at AD prevention, detection, and treatment, he said. In addition, as more AD drugs are approved, there will likely be county-level and even state-level implications for Medicare coverage.

In addition, these new findings could help physicians treating or caring for minority populations “understand the landscape of what the disease looks like,” said Dr. Rajan.

A limitation of the study was that it was based on data from a single study, he noted.

The next step is to expand this research. Dr. Rajan and others are establishing the Regional and Ethnic Variations in Alzheimer’s and Cognitive Health Consortium, with the goal of gaining a better understanding of AD prevalence across six U.S. regions.
 

Optimal resource distribution

In a comment, Percy Griffin, PhD, director of scientific engagement, Alzheimer’s Association, said the research provides useful information about AD prevalence at the local level.

“We need to understand how specific demographics and characteristics can help explain some of the high prevalence in certain areas.”

Compared with White Americans, Dr. Griffin noted that Black Americans are twice as likely to have AD, and older Hispanic Americans are 1.5 times as likely.

This new data will help pinpoint areas of high risk and high need so that funding, staffing, and other resources for those with AD and other dementias can be optimally distributed, he said.

“It gives us that kind of geographic specificity in terms of the prevalence so we can dig deeper and better allocate resources on a county level,” he added.

The Alzheimer’s Association “is fully committed to working with local agencies and being in the communities to assist them in their efforts to intervene in this disease.”

The study also highlights the need for more research to determine what factors other than age and race – such as potential environmental factors – might affect regional AD prevalence, he said.

The study received funding from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Rajan and Dr. Griffin reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Eastern and southeastern areas of the United States have the highest rates of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), new research shows.

Investigators at Rush University in Chicago found AD prevalence was highest in Maryland, New York, Mississippi, and Florida. At the county level, Miami-Dade in Florida, Baltimore city, and Bronx County in New York were among the U.S. counties with the highest prevalence of the disease.

Such geographical variations may be caused by the unique make-up of regional populations, study investigator Kumar Rajan, PhD, professor of medicine and director of Rush Institute for Healthy Aging, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, said in an interview.

Dr. Rajan presented the research at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.
 

High-impact research

An estimated 6.7 million Americans are living with AD, a figure that’s expected to double by 2050. Estimating the prevalence of Alzheimer’s across states’ counties can provide a better understanding of region-specific disease burden and have policy implications for resource allocation, Dr. Rajan noted.

To determine the state- and county-specific prevalence of AD, the researchers applied AD data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project, a population-based study that’s about 60% African American, to county- and state-level data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

“We used estimates in our study in Chicago, which began in the 1990s and has approximately 10,800 people, and projected those estimates to county-level populations to see what the variations look like,” said Dr. Rajan.

Of 3,142 counties in 50 states, the East and Southeastern regions of the United States had the highest AD prevalence. For states, the highest rates were in Maryland (12.9%), New York (12.7%), Mississippi (12.5%), and Florida (12.5%).

California and Illinois were also among the top 10 states with the highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s.

California had the highest number of residents, with 719,000 (95% confidence interval, 665,000-774,400), followed by Florida with 579,000 (95% CI, 539,900 to 620,000), and Texas with 459,000 (95% CI, 422,700 to 496,000).

The three counties with the highest prevalence, all with 16.6%, were Miami-Dade County, Baltimore city, and Bronx County.

One county in the top 10 for AD prevalence was El Paso, Tex., which Dr. Rajan found “a bit surprising,” as Texas was not among the top four states with the highest prevalence.

In addition to older age, what’s likely driving elevated AD prevalence in these areas is the substantially larger proportion of minority populations who are at higher risk for AD, possibly due to health disparities, said Dr. Rajan.

Determining local-level estimates of AD should have “a very high impact” on public health programs aimed at AD prevention, detection, and treatment, he said. In addition, as more AD drugs are approved, there will likely be county-level and even state-level implications for Medicare coverage.

In addition, these new findings could help physicians treating or caring for minority populations “understand the landscape of what the disease looks like,” said Dr. Rajan.

A limitation of the study was that it was based on data from a single study, he noted.

The next step is to expand this research. Dr. Rajan and others are establishing the Regional and Ethnic Variations in Alzheimer’s and Cognitive Health Consortium, with the goal of gaining a better understanding of AD prevalence across six U.S. regions.
 

Optimal resource distribution

In a comment, Percy Griffin, PhD, director of scientific engagement, Alzheimer’s Association, said the research provides useful information about AD prevalence at the local level.

“We need to understand how specific demographics and characteristics can help explain some of the high prevalence in certain areas.”

Compared with White Americans, Dr. Griffin noted that Black Americans are twice as likely to have AD, and older Hispanic Americans are 1.5 times as likely.

This new data will help pinpoint areas of high risk and high need so that funding, staffing, and other resources for those with AD and other dementias can be optimally distributed, he said.

“It gives us that kind of geographic specificity in terms of the prevalence so we can dig deeper and better allocate resources on a county level,” he added.

The Alzheimer’s Association “is fully committed to working with local agencies and being in the communities to assist them in their efforts to intervene in this disease.”

The study also highlights the need for more research to determine what factors other than age and race – such as potential environmental factors – might affect regional AD prevalence, he said.

The study received funding from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Rajan and Dr. Griffin reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

This last week I quietly reached a milestone. I didn’t do anything special about it; it was just another office day.

I passed 25 years since I first began seeing patients as an attending physician. That’s a pretty decent chunk of time.

I was terrified that day. For the first time in my medical career I was working without a net. I even remember the first one, a fellow with back pain. I saw five to six patients that day that I recall, including a work-in from the fellowship I’d completed 2 weeks earlier. I also had my first hospital consult when the oncologist I was subleasing from asked me to have a look at a lady he was admitting for new-onset diplopia.

That’s a good chuck of a career behind me, when you consider the beginnings of it. College, MCATs, waiting by the mailbox (yeah, kids, a mailbox, waiting for a printed letter, delivered by the postman). Moving halfway across the country for 4 years. Somehow, to my own amazement, graduating. Moving back. Internship. Residency. Fellowship.

Then my first day as an attending, now a quarter-century gone. Looking at my charts I’ve seen roughly 18,000 individual patients over time between my office and the hospital.

But that’s another change – after 22 years in the trenches, I stopped doing hospital work over 3 years ago. Inpatient work, at least to me now, seems more like a younger person’s game. In my late 50s, I don’t think I qualify as one anymore.

On day 1, also in the Phoenix summer, I wore a long-sleeved shirt, tie, slacks, and neatly polished shoes. In 2006 I moved to Hawaiian shirts, shorts, and sneakers.

I don’t plan on doing this in another 25 years. I still like it, but by then I will have passed the baton to another generation and will be off on a cruise ship having boat drinks in the afternoon.

But that’s not to say it hasn’t been fun. For all the frustrations, stresses, and aggravations, I have no regrets over the road I’ve taken, and hopefully I will always feel that way.

Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.

This last week I quietly reached a milestone. I didn’t do anything special about it; it was just another office day.

I passed 25 years since I first began seeing patients as an attending physician. That’s a pretty decent chunk of time.

I was terrified that day. For the first time in my medical career I was working without a net. I even remember the first one, a fellow with back pain. I saw five to six patients that day that I recall, including a work-in from the fellowship I’d completed 2 weeks earlier. I also had my first hospital consult when the oncologist I was subleasing from asked me to have a look at a lady he was admitting for new-onset diplopia.

That’s a good chuck of a career behind me, when you consider the beginnings of it. College, MCATs, waiting by the mailbox (yeah, kids, a mailbox, waiting for a printed letter, delivered by the postman). Moving halfway across the country for 4 years. Somehow, to my own amazement, graduating. Moving back. Internship. Residency. Fellowship.

Then my first day as an attending, now a quarter-century gone. Looking at my charts I’ve seen roughly 18,000 individual patients over time between my office and the hospital.

But that’s another change – after 22 years in the trenches, I stopped doing hospital work over 3 years ago. Inpatient work, at least to me now, seems more like a younger person’s game. In my late 50s, I don’t think I qualify as one anymore.

On day 1, also in the Phoenix summer, I wore a long-sleeved shirt, tie, slacks, and neatly polished shoes. In 2006 I moved to Hawaiian shirts, shorts, and sneakers.

I don’t plan on doing this in another 25 years. I still like it, but by then I will have passed the baton to another generation and will be off on a cruise ship having boat drinks in the afternoon.

But that’s not to say it hasn’t been fun. For all the frustrations, stresses, and aggravations, I have no regrets over the road I’ve taken, and hopefully I will always feel that way.

Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.

This last week I quietly reached a milestone. I didn’t do anything special about it; it was just another office day.

I passed 25 years since I first began seeing patients as an attending physician. That’s a pretty decent chunk of time.

I was terrified that day. For the first time in my medical career I was working without a net. I even remember the first one, a fellow with back pain. I saw five to six patients that day that I recall, including a work-in from the fellowship I’d completed 2 weeks earlier. I also had my first hospital consult when the oncologist I was subleasing from asked me to have a look at a lady he was admitting for new-onset diplopia.

That’s a good chuck of a career behind me, when you consider the beginnings of it. College, MCATs, waiting by the mailbox (yeah, kids, a mailbox, waiting for a printed letter, delivered by the postman). Moving halfway across the country for 4 years. Somehow, to my own amazement, graduating. Moving back. Internship. Residency. Fellowship.

Then my first day as an attending, now a quarter-century gone. Looking at my charts I’ve seen roughly 18,000 individual patients over time between my office and the hospital.

But that’s another change – after 22 years in the trenches, I stopped doing hospital work over 3 years ago. Inpatient work, at least to me now, seems more like a younger person’s game. In my late 50s, I don’t think I qualify as one anymore.

On day 1, also in the Phoenix summer, I wore a long-sleeved shirt, tie, slacks, and neatly polished shoes. In 2006 I moved to Hawaiian shirts, shorts, and sneakers.

I don’t plan on doing this in another 25 years. I still like it, but by then I will have passed the baton to another generation and will be off on a cruise ship having boat drinks in the afternoon.

But that’s not to say it hasn’t been fun. For all the frustrations, stresses, and aggravations, I have no regrets over the road I’ve taken, and hopefully I will always feel that way.

Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Medical student loans top hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it’s understandable that physicians may want to select a specialty that pays well.

But overwhelmingly, the physicians this news organization spoke to said they chose a specialty they were passionate about rather than focusing on going where more money was. Moreover, most advised young doctors to follow their hearts rather than their wallets.

“There is no question that many young kids immediately think about money when deciding to pursue medicine, but the thought of a big paycheck will never sustain someone long enough to get them here,” says Sergio Alvarez, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon based in Miami, Fla., and the CEO and medical director of Mia Aesthetics, which has several national locations.

“Getting into medicine is a long game, and there are many hurdles along the way that only the dedicated overcome,” says Dr. Alvarez.

Unfortunately, he says it may be late in that long game before some realize that the pay rate for certain specialties isn’t commensurate with the immense workload and responsibility they require.

“The short of it is that to become a happy doctor, medicine really needs to be a calling: a passion! There are far easier things to do to make money.”

Here is what physicians said about choosing between love or money.
 

The lowest-paying subspecialty in a low-paying specialty

Sophia Yen, MD, MPH, cofounder and CEO of Pandia Health, a women-founded, doctor-led birth control delivery service in Sunnyvale, Calif., and clinical associate professor at Stanford (Calif.) University, says you should pursue a specialty because you love the work.

“I chose the lowest-paying subspecialty (adolescent medicine) of a low-paying specialty (pediatrics), but I’d do it all again because I love the patient population – I love what I do.”

Dr. Yen says she chose adolescent medicine because she loves doing “outpatient gynecology” without going through the surgical training of a full ob.gyn. “I love the target population of young adults because you can talk to the patient versus in pediatrics, where you often talk to the parent. With young adults you can catch things – for example, teach a young person about consent, alcohol, marijuana’s effects on the growing brain, prevent unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, instill healthy eating, and more.

“Do I wish that I got paid as much as a surgeon?” Dr. Yen says yes. “I hope that someday society will realize the time spent preventing future disease is worth it and pay us accordingly.”

Unfortunately, she says, since the health care system makes more money if you get pregnant, need a cardiac bypass, or need gastric surgery, those who deliver babies or do surgery get paid more than someone who prevents the need for those services.
 

Money doesn’t buy happiness

Stella Bard, MD, a rheumatologist in McKinney, Tex., says she eats, lives, and breathes rheumatology. “I never regret the decision of choosing this specialty for a single second,” says Dr. Bard. “I feel like it’s a rewarding experience with every single patient encounter.” Dr. Bard notes that money is no guarantee of happiness and that she feels blessed to wake up every morning doing what she loves.

Career or calling?

For Dr. Alvarez, inspiration came when watching his father help change people’s lives. “I saw how impactful a doctor is during a person’s most desperate moments, and that was enough to make medicine my life’s passion at the age of 10.”

He says once you’re in medical school, choosing a specialty is far easier than you think. “Each specialty requires a certain personality or specific characteristics, and some will call to you while others simply won’t.”

“For me, plastics was about finesse, art, and life-changing surgeries that affected people from kids to adults and involved every aspect of the human body. Changing someone’s outward appearance has a profoundly positive impact on their confidence and self-esteem, making plastic surgery a genuinely transformative experience.”

Patricia Celan, MD, a postgraduate psychiatry resident in Canada, also chose psychiatry for the love of the field. “I enjoy helping vulnerable people and exploring what makes a person tick, the source of their difficulties, and how to help people counteract and overcome the difficult cards they’ve been dealt in life.”

She says it’s incredibly rewarding to watch someone turn their life around from severe mental illness, especially those who have been victimized and traumatized, and learn to trust people again.

“I could have made more money in a higher-paying specialty, yes, but I’m not sure I would have felt as fulfilled as psychiatry can make me feel.”

Dr. Celan says everyone has their calling, and some lucky people find their deepest passion in higher-paying specialties. “My calling is psychiatry, and I am at peace with this no matter the money.”
 

For the love of surgery

“In my experience, most people don’t choose their specialty based on money,” says Nicole Aaronson, MD, MBA, an otolaryngologist and board-certified in the subspecialty of pediatric otolaryngology, an attending surgeon at Nemours Children’s Health of Delaware and clinical associate professor of otolaryngology and pediatrics at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Philadelphia.

“The first decision point in medical school is usually figuring out if you are a surgery person or a medicine person. I knew very early that I wanted to be a surgeon and wanted to spend time in the OR fixing problems with my hands.”

Part of what attracted Dr. Aaronson to otolaryngology was the variety of conditions managed within the specialty, from head and neck cancer to voice problems to sleep disorders to sinus disease. “I chose my subspecialty because I enjoy working with children and making an impact that will help them live their best possible lives.”

She says a relatively simple surgery like placing ear tubes may help a child’s hearing and allow them to be more successful in school, opening up a new world of opportunities for the child’s future.

“While I don’t think most people choose their specialty based on prospective compensation, I do think all physicians want to be compensated fairly for their time, effort, and level of training,” says Dr. Aaronson.
 

Choosing a specialty for the money can lead to burnout and dissatisfaction

“For me, the decision to pursue gastroenterology went beyond financial considerations,” says Saurabh Sethi, MD, MPH, a gastroenterologist specializing in hepatology and interventional endoscopy. “While financial stability is undoubtedly important, no doctor enters this field solely for the love of money. The primary driving force for most medical professionals, myself included, is the passion to help people and make a positive difference in their lives.”

Dr. Sethi says the gratification that comes from providing quality care and witnessing patients’ improved well-being is priceless. Moreover, he believes that selecting a specialty based solely on financial gain is likely to lead to burnout and greater dissatisfaction over time.

“By following my love for gut health and prioritizing patient care, I have found a sense of fulfillment and purpose in my career. It has been a rewarding journey, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the well-being of my patients through my expertise in gastroenterology.”
 

Key takeaways: Love or money?

Multiple factors influence doctors’ specialty choices, including genuine love for the work and the future of the specialty. Others include job prospects, hands-on experience they receive, mentors, childhood dreams, parental expectations, complexity of cases, the lifestyle of each specialty, including office hours worked, on-call requirements, and autonomy.

Physicians also mentioned other factors they considered when choosing their specialty:

• Personal interest.
• Intellectual stimulation.
• Work-life balance.
• Patient populations.
• Future opportunities.
• Desire to make a difference.
• Passion.
• Financial stability.
• Being personally fulfilled.

Overwhelmingly, doctors say to pick a specialty you can envision yourself loving 40 years from now and you won’t go wrong.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Medical student loans top hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it’s understandable that physicians may want to select a specialty that pays well.

But overwhelmingly, the physicians this news organization spoke to said they chose a specialty they were passionate about rather than focusing on going where more money was. Moreover, most advised young doctors to follow their hearts rather than their wallets.

“There is no question that many young kids immediately think about money when deciding to pursue medicine, but the thought of a big paycheck will never sustain someone long enough to get them here,” says Sergio Alvarez, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon based in Miami, Fla., and the CEO and medical director of Mia Aesthetics, which has several national locations.

“Getting into medicine is a long game, and there are many hurdles along the way that only the dedicated overcome,” says Dr. Alvarez.

Unfortunately, he says it may be late in that long game before some realize that the pay rate for certain specialties isn’t commensurate with the immense workload and responsibility they require.

“The short of it is that to become a happy doctor, medicine really needs to be a calling: a passion! There are far easier things to do to make money.”

Here is what physicians said about choosing between love or money.
 

The lowest-paying subspecialty in a low-paying specialty

Sophia Yen, MD, MPH, cofounder and CEO of Pandia Health, a women-founded, doctor-led birth control delivery service in Sunnyvale, Calif., and clinical associate professor at Stanford (Calif.) University, says you should pursue a specialty because you love the work.

“I chose the lowest-paying subspecialty (adolescent medicine) of a low-paying specialty (pediatrics), but I’d do it all again because I love the patient population – I love what I do.”

Dr. Yen says she chose adolescent medicine because she loves doing “outpatient gynecology” without going through the surgical training of a full ob.gyn. “I love the target population of young adults because you can talk to the patient versus in pediatrics, where you often talk to the parent. With young adults you can catch things – for example, teach a young person about consent, alcohol, marijuana’s effects on the growing brain, prevent unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, instill healthy eating, and more.

“Do I wish that I got paid as much as a surgeon?” Dr. Yen says yes. “I hope that someday society will realize the time spent preventing future disease is worth it and pay us accordingly.”

Unfortunately, she says, since the health care system makes more money if you get pregnant, need a cardiac bypass, or need gastric surgery, those who deliver babies or do surgery get paid more than someone who prevents the need for those services.
 

Money doesn’t buy happiness

Stella Bard, MD, a rheumatologist in McKinney, Tex., says she eats, lives, and breathes rheumatology. “I never regret the decision of choosing this specialty for a single second,” says Dr. Bard. “I feel like it’s a rewarding experience with every single patient encounter.” Dr. Bard notes that money is no guarantee of happiness and that she feels blessed to wake up every morning doing what she loves.

Career or calling?

For Dr. Alvarez, inspiration came when watching his father help change people’s lives. “I saw how impactful a doctor is during a person’s most desperate moments, and that was enough to make medicine my life’s passion at the age of 10.”

He says once you’re in medical school, choosing a specialty is far easier than you think. “Each specialty requires a certain personality or specific characteristics, and some will call to you while others simply won’t.”

“For me, plastics was about finesse, art, and life-changing surgeries that affected people from kids to adults and involved every aspect of the human body. Changing someone’s outward appearance has a profoundly positive impact on their confidence and self-esteem, making plastic surgery a genuinely transformative experience.”

Patricia Celan, MD, a postgraduate psychiatry resident in Canada, also chose psychiatry for the love of the field. “I enjoy helping vulnerable people and exploring what makes a person tick, the source of their difficulties, and how to help people counteract and overcome the difficult cards they’ve been dealt in life.”

She says it’s incredibly rewarding to watch someone turn their life around from severe mental illness, especially those who have been victimized and traumatized, and learn to trust people again.

“I could have made more money in a higher-paying specialty, yes, but I’m not sure I would have felt as fulfilled as psychiatry can make me feel.”

Dr. Celan says everyone has their calling, and some lucky people find their deepest passion in higher-paying specialties. “My calling is psychiatry, and I am at peace with this no matter the money.”
 

For the love of surgery

“In my experience, most people don’t choose their specialty based on money,” says Nicole Aaronson, MD, MBA, an otolaryngologist and board-certified in the subspecialty of pediatric otolaryngology, an attending surgeon at Nemours Children’s Health of Delaware and clinical associate professor of otolaryngology and pediatrics at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Philadelphia.

“The first decision point in medical school is usually figuring out if you are a surgery person or a medicine person. I knew very early that I wanted to be a surgeon and wanted to spend time in the OR fixing problems with my hands.”

Part of what attracted Dr. Aaronson to otolaryngology was the variety of conditions managed within the specialty, from head and neck cancer to voice problems to sleep disorders to sinus disease. “I chose my subspecialty because I enjoy working with children and making an impact that will help them live their best possible lives.”

She says a relatively simple surgery like placing ear tubes may help a child’s hearing and allow them to be more successful in school, opening up a new world of opportunities for the child’s future.

“While I don’t think most people choose their specialty based on prospective compensation, I do think all physicians want to be compensated fairly for their time, effort, and level of training,” says Dr. Aaronson.
 

Choosing a specialty for the money can lead to burnout and dissatisfaction

“For me, the decision to pursue gastroenterology went beyond financial considerations,” says Saurabh Sethi, MD, MPH, a gastroenterologist specializing in hepatology and interventional endoscopy. “While financial stability is undoubtedly important, no doctor enters this field solely for the love of money. The primary driving force for most medical professionals, myself included, is the passion to help people and make a positive difference in their lives.”

Dr. Sethi says the gratification that comes from providing quality care and witnessing patients’ improved well-being is priceless. Moreover, he believes that selecting a specialty based solely on financial gain is likely to lead to burnout and greater dissatisfaction over time.

“By following my love for gut health and prioritizing patient care, I have found a sense of fulfillment and purpose in my career. It has been a rewarding journey, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the well-being of my patients through my expertise in gastroenterology.”
 

Key takeaways: Love or money?

Multiple factors influence doctors’ specialty choices, including genuine love for the work and the future of the specialty. Others include job prospects, hands-on experience they receive, mentors, childhood dreams, parental expectations, complexity of cases, the lifestyle of each specialty, including office hours worked, on-call requirements, and autonomy.

Physicians also mentioned other factors they considered when choosing their specialty:

• Personal interest.
• Intellectual stimulation.
• Work-life balance.
• Patient populations.
• Future opportunities.
• Desire to make a difference.
• Passion.
• Financial stability.
• Being personally fulfilled.

Overwhelmingly, doctors say to pick a specialty you can envision yourself loving 40 years from now and you won’t go wrong.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Medical student loans top hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it’s understandable that physicians may want to select a specialty that pays well.

But overwhelmingly, the physicians this news organization spoke to said they chose a specialty they were passionate about rather than focusing on going where more money was. Moreover, most advised young doctors to follow their hearts rather than their wallets.

“There is no question that many young kids immediately think about money when deciding to pursue medicine, but the thought of a big paycheck will never sustain someone long enough to get them here,” says Sergio Alvarez, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon based in Miami, Fla., and the CEO and medical director of Mia Aesthetics, which has several national locations.

“Getting into medicine is a long game, and there are many hurdles along the way that only the dedicated overcome,” says Dr. Alvarez.

Unfortunately, he says it may be late in that long game before some realize that the pay rate for certain specialties isn’t commensurate with the immense workload and responsibility they require.

“The short of it is that to become a happy doctor, medicine really needs to be a calling: a passion! There are far easier things to do to make money.”

Here is what physicians said about choosing between love or money.
 

The lowest-paying subspecialty in a low-paying specialty

Sophia Yen, MD, MPH, cofounder and CEO of Pandia Health, a women-founded, doctor-led birth control delivery service in Sunnyvale, Calif., and clinical associate professor at Stanford (Calif.) University, says you should pursue a specialty because you love the work.

“I chose the lowest-paying subspecialty (adolescent medicine) of a low-paying specialty (pediatrics), but I’d do it all again because I love the patient population – I love what I do.”

Dr. Yen says she chose adolescent medicine because she loves doing “outpatient gynecology” without going through the surgical training of a full ob.gyn. “I love the target population of young adults because you can talk to the patient versus in pediatrics, where you often talk to the parent. With young adults you can catch things – for example, teach a young person about consent, alcohol, marijuana’s effects on the growing brain, prevent unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, instill healthy eating, and more.

“Do I wish that I got paid as much as a surgeon?” Dr. Yen says yes. “I hope that someday society will realize the time spent preventing future disease is worth it and pay us accordingly.”

Unfortunately, she says, since the health care system makes more money if you get pregnant, need a cardiac bypass, or need gastric surgery, those who deliver babies or do surgery get paid more than someone who prevents the need for those services.
 

Money doesn’t buy happiness

Stella Bard, MD, a rheumatologist in McKinney, Tex., says she eats, lives, and breathes rheumatology. “I never regret the decision of choosing this specialty for a single second,” says Dr. Bard. “I feel like it’s a rewarding experience with every single patient encounter.” Dr. Bard notes that money is no guarantee of happiness and that she feels blessed to wake up every morning doing what she loves.

Career or calling?

For Dr. Alvarez, inspiration came when watching his father help change people’s lives. “I saw how impactful a doctor is during a person’s most desperate moments, and that was enough to make medicine my life’s passion at the age of 10.”

He says once you’re in medical school, choosing a specialty is far easier than you think. “Each specialty requires a certain personality or specific characteristics, and some will call to you while others simply won’t.”

“For me, plastics was about finesse, art, and life-changing surgeries that affected people from kids to adults and involved every aspect of the human body. Changing someone’s outward appearance has a profoundly positive impact on their confidence and self-esteem, making plastic surgery a genuinely transformative experience.”

Patricia Celan, MD, a postgraduate psychiatry resident in Canada, also chose psychiatry for the love of the field. “I enjoy helping vulnerable people and exploring what makes a person tick, the source of their difficulties, and how to help people counteract and overcome the difficult cards they’ve been dealt in life.”

She says it’s incredibly rewarding to watch someone turn their life around from severe mental illness, especially those who have been victimized and traumatized, and learn to trust people again.

“I could have made more money in a higher-paying specialty, yes, but I’m not sure I would have felt as fulfilled as psychiatry can make me feel.”

Dr. Celan says everyone has their calling, and some lucky people find their deepest passion in higher-paying specialties. “My calling is psychiatry, and I am at peace with this no matter the money.”
 

For the love of surgery

“In my experience, most people don’t choose their specialty based on money,” says Nicole Aaronson, MD, MBA, an otolaryngologist and board-certified in the subspecialty of pediatric otolaryngology, an attending surgeon at Nemours Children’s Health of Delaware and clinical associate professor of otolaryngology and pediatrics at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Philadelphia.

“The first decision point in medical school is usually figuring out if you are a surgery person or a medicine person. I knew very early that I wanted to be a surgeon and wanted to spend time in the OR fixing problems with my hands.”

Part of what attracted Dr. Aaronson to otolaryngology was the variety of conditions managed within the specialty, from head and neck cancer to voice problems to sleep disorders to sinus disease. “I chose my subspecialty because I enjoy working with children and making an impact that will help them live their best possible lives.”

She says a relatively simple surgery like placing ear tubes may help a child’s hearing and allow them to be more successful in school, opening up a new world of opportunities for the child’s future.

“While I don’t think most people choose their specialty based on prospective compensation, I do think all physicians want to be compensated fairly for their time, effort, and level of training,” says Dr. Aaronson.
 

Choosing a specialty for the money can lead to burnout and dissatisfaction

“For me, the decision to pursue gastroenterology went beyond financial considerations,” says Saurabh Sethi, MD, MPH, a gastroenterologist specializing in hepatology and interventional endoscopy. “While financial stability is undoubtedly important, no doctor enters this field solely for the love of money. The primary driving force for most medical professionals, myself included, is the passion to help people and make a positive difference in their lives.”

Dr. Sethi says the gratification that comes from providing quality care and witnessing patients’ improved well-being is priceless. Moreover, he believes that selecting a specialty based solely on financial gain is likely to lead to burnout and greater dissatisfaction over time.

“By following my love for gut health and prioritizing patient care, I have found a sense of fulfillment and purpose in my career. It has been a rewarding journey, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the well-being of my patients through my expertise in gastroenterology.”
 

Key takeaways: Love or money?

Multiple factors influence doctors’ specialty choices, including genuine love for the work and the future of the specialty. Others include job prospects, hands-on experience they receive, mentors, childhood dreams, parental expectations, complexity of cases, the lifestyle of each specialty, including office hours worked, on-call requirements, and autonomy.

Physicians also mentioned other factors they considered when choosing their specialty:

• Personal interest.
• Intellectual stimulation.
• Work-life balance.
• Patient populations.
• Future opportunities.
• Desire to make a difference.
• Passion.
• Financial stability.
• Being personally fulfilled.

Overwhelmingly, doctors say to pick a specialty you can envision yourself loving 40 years from now and you won’t go wrong.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

An unapproved gene therapy for Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) led to a marked improvement in the eyesight of patients with a severe, progressive form of the disease who received the therapy as part of an early access program.

Results of a study of more than 60 patients who received lenadogene nolparvovec (Lumevoq, GenSight Biologics) as a unilateral or bilateral intravitreal injection showed that at 2-year follow-up, 60% had experienced a clinically relevant improvement in the number of letters they could read on a visual acuity chart.

The results, said study presenter Chiara La Morgia, MD, PhD, IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna (Italy), confirm in a “real-life setting” the efficacy and safety of the treatment as previously shown in clinical trials.

The findings were presented at the Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) 2023.
 

Severe disease

LHON is a maternally inherited genetic condition that leads to rapid loss of vision. It is caused by alterations in mitochondrial DNA that increase oxidative stress in retinal ganglion cells, leading to cell damage and death. The m.11778G>A MT-ND4 mutation (MT-ND4-LHON) is the most common and is seen in approximately 75% of LHON patients in Europe and North America.

It also leads to the most severe form of the disease, in which patients experience rapid, progressive, and painless bilateral loss of vision, either simultaneously or sequentially in both eyes. Within 1 year of onset, 97% of patients have bilateral involvement.

Lenadogene nolparvovec uses an adeno-associated virus vector to deliver the wild-type ND4 gene directly to the mitochondrial membrane of the retinal ganglion cells. This compensates for the mutation and leads to protein synthesis and restoration of energy production.

Dr. La Morgia said that, so far, five clinical studies are or have been conducted with the gene therapy with patients in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In the current analysis, patients who received the therapy as part of an early access program underwent unilateral or bilateral intravitreal injection at a dose of 9x10¹⁰ viral genomes per eye. Efficacy and safety data, as well as patient baseline characteristics, were collected.

Between August 2018 and March 2022, 63 patients with MT-ND4-LHON received lenadogene nolparvovec. Individual-level data were pooled and analyzed. The mean age at first injection was 33.7 years; 90.5% of participants were aged 60 years or younger. The majority (77.8%) were male; just over half (55.6%) were from France, while 28.6% were from the United States.

The average disease duration at first injection was 11.3 years. Sixty-seven percent of patients were injected in both eyes, and 81.0% had previously received idebenone, a short-chain benzoquinone, the only treatment for LHON that has marketing authorization.

At 2-year follow-up, there was a marked improvement in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) scores. Moreover, among all 90 treated eyes for which data were available, the mean change in BCVA from nadir at 1 year was –0.45 log of the minimum angle of resolution (LogMAR), or +22.5 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) letters on a chart.

Among 58 bilaterally treated eyes, the mean improvement was –0.49 LogMAR, or +24.5 ETDRS letters, over the same period. In 32 unilaterally treated eyes, mean improvement was –0.39 LogMAR, or +19.5 ETDRS letters.

Overall, 64.4% of treated eyes showed an improvement from nadir of ≥ 0.3 LogMAR. A clinically relevant response, defined as an improvement of ≥ 10 ETDRS letters, was achieved by 60.0% of patients.

Regarding safety, Dr. La Morgia showed that 42.9% of eyes had at least one episode of intraocular inflammation, a rate she described as “quite high.” The episodes lasted for an average of 155.8 days.

“But all of this inflammation was very easily treatable in a majority of cases without using oral steroids,” she added, “just topical steroids.”

She also noted that in most cases, the inflammation was not severe.
 

Approval status

Session cochair Gianfranco De Stefano, MD, department of human neuroscience, Sapienza University of Rome, asked Dr. La Morgia about the current approval status of lenadogene nolparvovec.

She said that it was presented to the European Medicines Agency for approval, but the application was withdrawn earlier this year. The “main criticism” was that bilateral improvement was seen even in patients who received only a unilateral injection.

This is “not easily explainable,” said Dr. La Morgia, although it was found that the viral vector was present in the uninjected eye.

There was also a question regarding the heterogeneity of the patient data, which it is hoped will be addressed in future clinical trials.

Commenting after the session, De Stefano said in an interview that the results are “very interesting” and “very promising.”

He pointed out that idebenone may be the only currently available therapy for LHON, but it is “not very effective, and it’s something you give the patient just for the sake of doing something” in light of the possibility that he or she might have “even a small improvement” in eyesight.

However, he believes that lenadogene nolparvovec is a long way from becoming available in the clinic, primarily because longer follow-up is required to determine whether just one injection is enough.

“It may be likely that this gene therapy does not have a long-lasting effect,” he explained.

Currently, the longest follow-up is just 2 years; “I don’t know if there will be a need for repeat injection,” De Stefano said.

No funding was declared. Dr. La Morgia has relationships with Chiesi Farmaceutici, GenSight Biologics, Regulatory Pharma Net, Thenewway, Santhera Pharmaceuticals, First Class srl, Biologix, Stoke Therapeutics, and Reneo.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

An unapproved gene therapy for Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) led to a marked improvement in the eyesight of patients with a severe, progressive form of the disease who received the therapy as part of an early access program.

Results of a study of more than 60 patients who received lenadogene nolparvovec (Lumevoq, GenSight Biologics) as a unilateral or bilateral intravitreal injection showed that at 2-year follow-up, 60% had experienced a clinically relevant improvement in the number of letters they could read on a visual acuity chart.

The results, said study presenter Chiara La Morgia, MD, PhD, IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna (Italy), confirm in a “real-life setting” the efficacy and safety of the treatment as previously shown in clinical trials.

The findings were presented at the Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) 2023.
 

Severe disease

LHON is a maternally inherited genetic condition that leads to rapid loss of vision. It is caused by alterations in mitochondrial DNA that increase oxidative stress in retinal ganglion cells, leading to cell damage and death. The m.11778G>A MT-ND4 mutation (MT-ND4-LHON) is the most common and is seen in approximately 75% of LHON patients in Europe and North America.

It also leads to the most severe form of the disease, in which patients experience rapid, progressive, and painless bilateral loss of vision, either simultaneously or sequentially in both eyes. Within 1 year of onset, 97% of patients have bilateral involvement.

Lenadogene nolparvovec uses an adeno-associated virus vector to deliver the wild-type ND4 gene directly to the mitochondrial membrane of the retinal ganglion cells. This compensates for the mutation and leads to protein synthesis and restoration of energy production.

Dr. La Morgia said that, so far, five clinical studies are or have been conducted with the gene therapy with patients in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In the current analysis, patients who received the therapy as part of an early access program underwent unilateral or bilateral intravitreal injection at a dose of 9x10¹⁰ viral genomes per eye. Efficacy and safety data, as well as patient baseline characteristics, were collected.

Between August 2018 and March 2022, 63 patients with MT-ND4-LHON received lenadogene nolparvovec. Individual-level data were pooled and analyzed. The mean age at first injection was 33.7 years; 90.5% of participants were aged 60 years or younger. The majority (77.8%) were male; just over half (55.6%) were from France, while 28.6% were from the United States.

The average disease duration at first injection was 11.3 years. Sixty-seven percent of patients were injected in both eyes, and 81.0% had previously received idebenone, a short-chain benzoquinone, the only treatment for LHON that has marketing authorization.

At 2-year follow-up, there was a marked improvement in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) scores. Moreover, among all 90 treated eyes for which data were available, the mean change in BCVA from nadir at 1 year was –0.45 log of the minimum angle of resolution (LogMAR), or +22.5 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) letters on a chart.

Among 58 bilaterally treated eyes, the mean improvement was –0.49 LogMAR, or +24.5 ETDRS letters, over the same period. In 32 unilaterally treated eyes, mean improvement was –0.39 LogMAR, or +19.5 ETDRS letters.

Overall, 64.4% of treated eyes showed an improvement from nadir of ≥ 0.3 LogMAR. A clinically relevant response, defined as an improvement of ≥ 10 ETDRS letters, was achieved by 60.0% of patients.

Regarding safety, Dr. La Morgia showed that 42.9% of eyes had at least one episode of intraocular inflammation, a rate she described as “quite high.” The episodes lasted for an average of 155.8 days.

“But all of this inflammation was very easily treatable in a majority of cases without using oral steroids,” she added, “just topical steroids.”

She also noted that in most cases, the inflammation was not severe.
 

Approval status

Session cochair Gianfranco De Stefano, MD, department of human neuroscience, Sapienza University of Rome, asked Dr. La Morgia about the current approval status of lenadogene nolparvovec.

She said that it was presented to the European Medicines Agency for approval, but the application was withdrawn earlier this year. The “main criticism” was that bilateral improvement was seen even in patients who received only a unilateral injection.

This is “not easily explainable,” said Dr. La Morgia, although it was found that the viral vector was present in the uninjected eye.

There was also a question regarding the heterogeneity of the patient data, which it is hoped will be addressed in future clinical trials.

Commenting after the session, De Stefano said in an interview that the results are “very interesting” and “very promising.”

He pointed out that idebenone may be the only currently available therapy for LHON, but it is “not very effective, and it’s something you give the patient just for the sake of doing something” in light of the possibility that he or she might have “even a small improvement” in eyesight.

However, he believes that lenadogene nolparvovec is a long way from becoming available in the clinic, primarily because longer follow-up is required to determine whether just one injection is enough.

“It may be likely that this gene therapy does not have a long-lasting effect,” he explained.

Currently, the longest follow-up is just 2 years; “I don’t know if there will be a need for repeat injection,” De Stefano said.

No funding was declared. Dr. La Morgia has relationships with Chiesi Farmaceutici, GenSight Biologics, Regulatory Pharma Net, Thenewway, Santhera Pharmaceuticals, First Class srl, Biologix, Stoke Therapeutics, and Reneo.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

An unapproved gene therapy for Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) led to a marked improvement in the eyesight of patients with a severe, progressive form of the disease who received the therapy as part of an early access program.

Results of a study of more than 60 patients who received lenadogene nolparvovec (Lumevoq, GenSight Biologics) as a unilateral or bilateral intravitreal injection showed that at 2-year follow-up, 60% had experienced a clinically relevant improvement in the number of letters they could read on a visual acuity chart.

The results, said study presenter Chiara La Morgia, MD, PhD, IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna (Italy), confirm in a “real-life setting” the efficacy and safety of the treatment as previously shown in clinical trials.

The findings were presented at the Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) 2023.
 

Severe disease

LHON is a maternally inherited genetic condition that leads to rapid loss of vision. It is caused by alterations in mitochondrial DNA that increase oxidative stress in retinal ganglion cells, leading to cell damage and death. The m.11778G>A MT-ND4 mutation (MT-ND4-LHON) is the most common and is seen in approximately 75% of LHON patients in Europe and North America.

It also leads to the most severe form of the disease, in which patients experience rapid, progressive, and painless bilateral loss of vision, either simultaneously or sequentially in both eyes. Within 1 year of onset, 97% of patients have bilateral involvement.

Lenadogene nolparvovec uses an adeno-associated virus vector to deliver the wild-type ND4 gene directly to the mitochondrial membrane of the retinal ganglion cells. This compensates for the mutation and leads to protein synthesis and restoration of energy production.

Dr. La Morgia said that, so far, five clinical studies are or have been conducted with the gene therapy with patients in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In the current analysis, patients who received the therapy as part of an early access program underwent unilateral or bilateral intravitreal injection at a dose of 9x10¹⁰ viral genomes per eye. Efficacy and safety data, as well as patient baseline characteristics, were collected.

Between August 2018 and March 2022, 63 patients with MT-ND4-LHON received lenadogene nolparvovec. Individual-level data were pooled and analyzed. The mean age at first injection was 33.7 years; 90.5% of participants were aged 60 years or younger. The majority (77.8%) were male; just over half (55.6%) were from France, while 28.6% were from the United States.

The average disease duration at first injection was 11.3 years. Sixty-seven percent of patients were injected in both eyes, and 81.0% had previously received idebenone, a short-chain benzoquinone, the only treatment for LHON that has marketing authorization.

At 2-year follow-up, there was a marked improvement in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) scores. Moreover, among all 90 treated eyes for which data were available, the mean change in BCVA from nadir at 1 year was –0.45 log of the minimum angle of resolution (LogMAR), or +22.5 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) letters on a chart.

Among 58 bilaterally treated eyes, the mean improvement was –0.49 LogMAR, or +24.5 ETDRS letters, over the same period. In 32 unilaterally treated eyes, mean improvement was –0.39 LogMAR, or +19.5 ETDRS letters.

Overall, 64.4% of treated eyes showed an improvement from nadir of ≥ 0.3 LogMAR. A clinically relevant response, defined as an improvement of ≥ 10 ETDRS letters, was achieved by 60.0% of patients.

Regarding safety, Dr. La Morgia showed that 42.9% of eyes had at least one episode of intraocular inflammation, a rate she described as “quite high.” The episodes lasted for an average of 155.8 days.

“But all of this inflammation was very easily treatable in a majority of cases without using oral steroids,” she added, “just topical steroids.”

She also noted that in most cases, the inflammation was not severe.
 

Approval status

Session cochair Gianfranco De Stefano, MD, department of human neuroscience, Sapienza University of Rome, asked Dr. La Morgia about the current approval status of lenadogene nolparvovec.

She said that it was presented to the European Medicines Agency for approval, but the application was withdrawn earlier this year. The “main criticism” was that bilateral improvement was seen even in patients who received only a unilateral injection.

This is “not easily explainable,” said Dr. La Morgia, although it was found that the viral vector was present in the uninjected eye.

There was also a question regarding the heterogeneity of the patient data, which it is hoped will be addressed in future clinical trials.

Commenting after the session, De Stefano said in an interview that the results are “very interesting” and “very promising.”

He pointed out that idebenone may be the only currently available therapy for LHON, but it is “not very effective, and it’s something you give the patient just for the sake of doing something” in light of the possibility that he or she might have “even a small improvement” in eyesight.

However, he believes that lenadogene nolparvovec is a long way from becoming available in the clinic, primarily because longer follow-up is required to determine whether just one injection is enough.

“It may be likely that this gene therapy does not have a long-lasting effect,” he explained.

Currently, the longest follow-up is just 2 years; “I don’t know if there will be a need for repeat injection,” De Stefano said.

No funding was declared. Dr. La Morgia has relationships with Chiesi Farmaceutici, GenSight Biologics, Regulatory Pharma Net, Thenewway, Santhera Pharmaceuticals, First Class srl, Biologix, Stoke Therapeutics, and Reneo.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Nearly 9 out of every 100 U.S. children are now diagnosed with a developmental disability, according to updated figures from the CDC. 

Developmental disabilities include autism, intellectual disabilities such as Down syndrome, and a range of other diagnoses related to missing developmental milestones in how a child plays, learns, or speaks.

The newly reported increase amounts to just over 1 percentage point from 2019 to 2021. In 2019, the rate of developmental disability diagnoses was about 7 in 100 children. The latest figures are from 2021 data, published this week after the CDC finished analyzing responses to the National Health Survey.

Among children ages 3-17 years old in 2021, the survey showed that:

• 1.7% had an intellectual disability.
• 3.1% had autism spectrum disorder.
• 6.1% had a diagnosis of “other developmental delay.”

No significant change was seen from 2019 to 2021 in how common it was for survey respondents to report children having autism or an intellectual disability. The overall increase was driven by a jump in reports from parents that a doctor or health professional told them their child had “any other developmental delay,” excluding autism spectrum disorder or an intellectual disability.

“A lot of times developmental delays might be temporary diagnoses that evolve into something like autism, potentially, or intellectual disability. But also a lot of times children do age out of those,” lead report author and CDC statistician Benjamin Zablotsky, PhD, told CBS News.

The CDC offers an app called Milestone Tracker to help parents watch for signs of developmental delays, in addition to operating a public health education program called “Learn the Signs. Act Early.”

The new report showed that boys were nearly twice as likely as girls to have any developmental delay, a pattern that was magnified when looking specifically at autism diagnoses. Boys were more than three times as likely as girls to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The rate of autism among boys was 4.7%, compared with 1.5% among girls.

While these latest survey results showed consistent rates of autism from 2019 to 2021, a different CDC report earlier this year showed an alarming jump in the rate of autism spectrum disorder among 8-year-olds. That report, which compared data from 2008 to 2020, showed the rate of autism among 8-year-olds rose during those 12 years from 1 in 88 kids to 1 in 36 kids.

The two analyses also differed in their findings regarding prevalence of autism when looking at children by race and ethnicity. The report from earlier this year showed that Black and Hispanic children were more likely to be diagnosed with autism, compared with White children. This latest report did not find any differences in the prevalence of autism based on a child’s race or ethnicity.

A version of this article appeared on WebMD.com.

Nearly 9 out of every 100 U.S. children are now diagnosed with a developmental disability, according to updated figures from the CDC. 

Developmental disabilities include autism, intellectual disabilities such as Down syndrome, and a range of other diagnoses related to missing developmental milestones in how a child plays, learns, or speaks.

The newly reported increase amounts to just over 1 percentage point from 2019 to 2021. In 2019, the rate of developmental disability diagnoses was about 7 in 100 children. The latest figures are from 2021 data, published this week after the CDC finished analyzing responses to the National Health Survey.

Among children ages 3-17 years old in 2021, the survey showed that:

• 1.7% had an intellectual disability.
• 3.1% had autism spectrum disorder.
• 6.1% had a diagnosis of “other developmental delay.”

No significant change was seen from 2019 to 2021 in how common it was for survey respondents to report children having autism or an intellectual disability. The overall increase was driven by a jump in reports from parents that a doctor or health professional told them their child had “any other developmental delay,” excluding autism spectrum disorder or an intellectual disability.

“A lot of times developmental delays might be temporary diagnoses that evolve into something like autism, potentially, or intellectual disability. But also a lot of times children do age out of those,” lead report author and CDC statistician Benjamin Zablotsky, PhD, told CBS News.

The CDC offers an app called Milestone Tracker to help parents watch for signs of developmental delays, in addition to operating a public health education program called “Learn the Signs. Act Early.”

The new report showed that boys were nearly twice as likely as girls to have any developmental delay, a pattern that was magnified when looking specifically at autism diagnoses. Boys were more than three times as likely as girls to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The rate of autism among boys was 4.7%, compared with 1.5% among girls.

While these latest survey results showed consistent rates of autism from 2019 to 2021, a different CDC report earlier this year showed an alarming jump in the rate of autism spectrum disorder among 8-year-olds. That report, which compared data from 2008 to 2020, showed the rate of autism among 8-year-olds rose during those 12 years from 1 in 88 kids to 1 in 36 kids.

The two analyses also differed in their findings regarding prevalence of autism when looking at children by race and ethnicity. The report from earlier this year showed that Black and Hispanic children were more likely to be diagnosed with autism, compared with White children. This latest report did not find any differences in the prevalence of autism based on a child’s race or ethnicity.

A version of this article appeared on WebMD.com.

Nearly 9 out of every 100 U.S. children are now diagnosed with a developmental disability, according to updated figures from the CDC. 

Developmental disabilities include autism, intellectual disabilities such as Down syndrome, and a range of other diagnoses related to missing developmental milestones in how a child plays, learns, or speaks.

The newly reported increase amounts to just over 1 percentage point from 2019 to 2021. In 2019, the rate of developmental disability diagnoses was about 7 in 100 children. The latest figures are from 2021 data, published this week after the CDC finished analyzing responses to the National Health Survey.

Among children ages 3-17 years old in 2021, the survey showed that:

• 1.7% had an intellectual disability.
• 3.1% had autism spectrum disorder.
• 6.1% had a diagnosis of “other developmental delay.”

No significant change was seen from 2019 to 2021 in how common it was for survey respondents to report children having autism or an intellectual disability. The overall increase was driven by a jump in reports from parents that a doctor or health professional told them their child had “any other developmental delay,” excluding autism spectrum disorder or an intellectual disability.

“A lot of times developmental delays might be temporary diagnoses that evolve into something like autism, potentially, or intellectual disability. But also a lot of times children do age out of those,” lead report author and CDC statistician Benjamin Zablotsky, PhD, told CBS News.

The CDC offers an app called Milestone Tracker to help parents watch for signs of developmental delays, in addition to operating a public health education program called “Learn the Signs. Act Early.”

The new report showed that boys were nearly twice as likely as girls to have any developmental delay, a pattern that was magnified when looking specifically at autism diagnoses. Boys were more than three times as likely as girls to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The rate of autism among boys was 4.7%, compared with 1.5% among girls.

While these latest survey results showed consistent rates of autism from 2019 to 2021, a different CDC report earlier this year showed an alarming jump in the rate of autism spectrum disorder among 8-year-olds. That report, which compared data from 2008 to 2020, showed the rate of autism among 8-year-olds rose during those 12 years from 1 in 88 kids to 1 in 36 kids.

The two analyses also differed in their findings regarding prevalence of autism when looking at children by race and ethnicity. The report from earlier this year showed that Black and Hispanic children were more likely to be diagnosed with autism, compared with White children. This latest report did not find any differences in the prevalence of autism based on a child’s race or ethnicity.

A version of this article appeared on WebMD.com.

Feelings of inadequacy, in terms of skills and expectations in an ever-changing system, are common emotions that many doctors have experienced since the start of the pandemic.

COVID-19 imposed challenges on health care professionals and systems by forcing changes in how doctors organize themselves professionally as well as in their relationships with patients and in their expectations (realistic or not) of their roles. The situation was bound to generate high rates of frustration and discomfort among younger and older physicians. It was compounded by a generational transition of the profession, which was accelerated by the virus. It was not managed by the decision-makers and was painful for doctors and patients.

Impostor syndrome (IS) is a psychological construct characterized by the persistent belief that one’s success is undeserved, rather than stemming from personal effort, skill, and ability. The phenomenon is common among medics for various reasons, including professional burnout. Recent studies have helped to better define the extent and characteristic features of the syndrome, as well as efforts to combat it.
 

Doctors and burnout

Although occupational burnout among physicians is a systemic issue primarily attributable to problems in the practice environment, professional norms and aspects of medical culture often contribute to the distress that individual physicians experience.

These dimensions have been well characterized and include suggestions that physicians should be impervious to normal human limitations (that is, superhuman), that work should always come first, and that seeking help is a sign of weakness. In aggregate, these attitudes lead many physicians to engage in unhealthy levels of self-sacrifice, manifested by excessive work hours, anxiety about missing something that would benefit their patients, and prioritizing work over personal health. These factors are familiar to many hospital-based and family physicians.
 

The impostor phenomenon

The impostor phenomenon (IP) is a psychological experience of intellectual and professional fraud. Individuals who suffer from it believe that others have inflated perceptions of the individual’s abilities and fear being judged. This fear persists despite continual proof of the individual’s successes. These people ignore praise, are highly self-critical, and attribute their successes to external factors, such as luck, hard work, or receiving help from others, rather than to qualities such as skill, intelligence, or ability.

IP is common among men and women. Some studies suggest it may be more prevalent among women. Studies across industries suggest that the phenomenon is associated with personal consequences (for example, low emotional well-being, problems with work-life integration, anxiety, depression, suicide) and professional consequences (for example, impaired job performance, occupational burnout). Studies involving U.S. medical students have revealed that more than one in four medical students experience IP and that those who experience it are at higher risk for burnout.
 

Surveying IS

IS, which is not a formal psychiatric diagnosis, is defined as having feelings of uncertainty, inadequacy, and being undeserving of one’s achievements despite evidence to the contrary. There are five subtypes of IS:

• Perfectionist: insecurity related to self-imposed, unachievable goals
• Expert: feeling inadequate from lacking sufficient knowledge
• Superperson: assuming excessive workloads just to feel okay among peers
• Natural genius: experiencing shame when it takes effort to develop a skill
• Soloist: believing that requesting help is a sign of weakness

Risk factors

Studies suggest that IS is a problem early in the physician training process. There is limited information on IS among physicians in practice.

Because transitions represent a risk factor for IP, the frequent rotation between clerkships and being a “perpetual novice” during medical school training may contribute to the high prevalence. Qualitative studies suggest that, once in practice, other professional experiences (for example, unfavorable patient outcomes, patient complaints, rejection of grants or manuscripts, and poor teaching evaluations or patient satisfaction scores) may contribute to IP.
 

Impact on doctors

Several methods have been used to classify how much the phenomenon interferes with a person’s life. The Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale is a 20-item scale that asks respondents to indicate how well each item characterizes their experience on a 5-point scale. Options range from “not at all” to “very true.” The sum of responses to the individual items is used to create an aggregate score (IP score). The higher the score, the more frequently and seriously IP interferes with a person’s life.

A simplified version of the IP score was used in a study of 3,237 U.S. doctors that investigated the association between IS and burnout among doctors and to compare their rates of IS with those of other professionals.

Mean IP scores were higher for female physicians than for male physicians (mean, 10.91 vs. 9.12; P < .001). Scores decreased with age and were lower among those who were married or widowed.

With respect to professional characteristics, IP scores were greater among those in academic practice or who worked in the Veterans Affairs medical system and decreased with years in practice.

The highest IP scores were among pediatric subspecialists, general pediatricians, and emergency medicine physicians. Scores were lowest among ophthalmologists, radiologists, and orthopedic surgeons. IP has been independently associated with the risk of burnout and low professional fulfillment.
 

Lessening the impact

An article commenting on the study highlighted the following expert practice strategies that doctors can use to reduce the impact of IS in their professional life.

• Review and celebrate feats that have led to your professional role.
• Share concerns with trusted colleagues who can validate your accomplishments and normalize your feelings by reporting their own struggles with IS.
• Combat perfectionism by accepting that it is okay to be good enough when meeting the challenges of a demanding profession.
• Exercise self-compassion as an alternative to relying on an external locus of self-worth.
• Understand that IS may be common, especially during transitions, such as when entering medical school, graduate medical training, or starting a new career.

This article was translated from Univadis Italy. A version appeared on Medscape.com.

Feelings of inadequacy, in terms of skills and expectations in an ever-changing system, are common emotions that many doctors have experienced since the start of the pandemic.

COVID-19 imposed challenges on health care professionals and systems by forcing changes in how doctors organize themselves professionally as well as in their relationships with patients and in their expectations (realistic or not) of their roles. The situation was bound to generate high rates of frustration and discomfort among younger and older physicians. It was compounded by a generational transition of the profession, which was accelerated by the virus. It was not managed by the decision-makers and was painful for doctors and patients.

Impostor syndrome (IS) is a psychological construct characterized by the persistent belief that one’s success is undeserved, rather than stemming from personal effort, skill, and ability. The phenomenon is common among medics for various reasons, including professional burnout. Recent studies have helped to better define the extent and characteristic features of the syndrome, as well as efforts to combat it.
 

Doctors and burnout

Although occupational burnout among physicians is a systemic issue primarily attributable to problems in the practice environment, professional norms and aspects of medical culture often contribute to the distress that individual physicians experience.

These dimensions have been well characterized and include suggestions that physicians should be impervious to normal human limitations (that is, superhuman), that work should always come first, and that seeking help is a sign of weakness. In aggregate, these attitudes lead many physicians to engage in unhealthy levels of self-sacrifice, manifested by excessive work hours, anxiety about missing something that would benefit their patients, and prioritizing work over personal health. These factors are familiar to many hospital-based and family physicians.
 

The impostor phenomenon

The impostor phenomenon (IP) is a psychological experience of intellectual and professional fraud. Individuals who suffer from it believe that others have inflated perceptions of the individual’s abilities and fear being judged. This fear persists despite continual proof of the individual’s successes. These people ignore praise, are highly self-critical, and attribute their successes to external factors, such as luck, hard work, or receiving help from others, rather than to qualities such as skill, intelligence, or ability.

IP is common among men and women. Some studies suggest it may be more prevalent among women. Studies across industries suggest that the phenomenon is associated with personal consequences (for example, low emotional well-being, problems with work-life integration, anxiety, depression, suicide) and professional consequences (for example, impaired job performance, occupational burnout). Studies involving U.S. medical students have revealed that more than one in four medical students experience IP and that those who experience it are at higher risk for burnout.
 

Surveying IS

IS, which is not a formal psychiatric diagnosis, is defined as having feelings of uncertainty, inadequacy, and being undeserving of one’s achievements despite evidence to the contrary. There are five subtypes of IS:

• Perfectionist: insecurity related to self-imposed, unachievable goals
• Expert: feeling inadequate from lacking sufficient knowledge
• Superperson: assuming excessive workloads just to feel okay among peers
• Natural genius: experiencing shame when it takes effort to develop a skill
• Soloist: believing that requesting help is a sign of weakness

Risk factors

Studies suggest that IS is a problem early in the physician training process. There is limited information on IS among physicians in practice.

Because transitions represent a risk factor for IP, the frequent rotation between clerkships and being a “perpetual novice” during medical school training may contribute to the high prevalence. Qualitative studies suggest that, once in practice, other professional experiences (for example, unfavorable patient outcomes, patient complaints, rejection of grants or manuscripts, and poor teaching evaluations or patient satisfaction scores) may contribute to IP.
 

Impact on doctors

Several methods have been used to classify how much the phenomenon interferes with a person’s life. The Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale is a 20-item scale that asks respondents to indicate how well each item characterizes their experience on a 5-point scale. Options range from “not at all” to “very true.” The sum of responses to the individual items is used to create an aggregate score (IP score). The higher the score, the more frequently and seriously IP interferes with a person’s life.

A simplified version of the IP score was used in a study of 3,237 U.S. doctors that investigated the association between IS and burnout among doctors and to compare their rates of IS with those of other professionals.

Mean IP scores were higher for female physicians than for male physicians (mean, 10.91 vs. 9.12; P < .001). Scores decreased with age and were lower among those who were married or widowed.

With respect to professional characteristics, IP scores were greater among those in academic practice or who worked in the Veterans Affairs medical system and decreased with years in practice.

The highest IP scores were among pediatric subspecialists, general pediatricians, and emergency medicine physicians. Scores were lowest among ophthalmologists, radiologists, and orthopedic surgeons. IP has been independently associated with the risk of burnout and low professional fulfillment.
 

Lessening the impact

An article commenting on the study highlighted the following expert practice strategies that doctors can use to reduce the impact of IS in their professional life.

• Review and celebrate feats that have led to your professional role.
• Share concerns with trusted colleagues who can validate your accomplishments and normalize your feelings by reporting their own struggles with IS.
• Combat perfectionism by accepting that it is okay to be good enough when meeting the challenges of a demanding profession.
• Exercise self-compassion as an alternative to relying on an external locus of self-worth.
• Understand that IS may be common, especially during transitions, such as when entering medical school, graduate medical training, or starting a new career.

This article was translated from Univadis Italy. A version appeared on Medscape.com.

Feelings of inadequacy, in terms of skills and expectations in an ever-changing system, are common emotions that many doctors have experienced since the start of the pandemic.

COVID-19 imposed challenges on health care professionals and systems by forcing changes in how doctors organize themselves professionally as well as in their relationships with patients and in their expectations (realistic or not) of their roles. The situation was bound to generate high rates of frustration and discomfort among younger and older physicians. It was compounded by a generational transition of the profession, which was accelerated by the virus. It was not managed by the decision-makers and was painful for doctors and patients.

Impostor syndrome (IS) is a psychological construct characterized by the persistent belief that one’s success is undeserved, rather than stemming from personal effort, skill, and ability. The phenomenon is common among medics for various reasons, including professional burnout. Recent studies have helped to better define the extent and characteristic features of the syndrome, as well as efforts to combat it.
 

Doctors and burnout

Although occupational burnout among physicians is a systemic issue primarily attributable to problems in the practice environment, professional norms and aspects of medical culture often contribute to the distress that individual physicians experience.

These dimensions have been well characterized and include suggestions that physicians should be impervious to normal human limitations (that is, superhuman), that work should always come first, and that seeking help is a sign of weakness. In aggregate, these attitudes lead many physicians to engage in unhealthy levels of self-sacrifice, manifested by excessive work hours, anxiety about missing something that would benefit their patients, and prioritizing work over personal health. These factors are familiar to many hospital-based and family physicians.
 

The impostor phenomenon

The impostor phenomenon (IP) is a psychological experience of intellectual and professional fraud. Individuals who suffer from it believe that others have inflated perceptions of the individual’s abilities and fear being judged. This fear persists despite continual proof of the individual’s successes. These people ignore praise, are highly self-critical, and attribute their successes to external factors, such as luck, hard work, or receiving help from others, rather than to qualities such as skill, intelligence, or ability.

IP is common among men and women. Some studies suggest it may be more prevalent among women. Studies across industries suggest that the phenomenon is associated with personal consequences (for example, low emotional well-being, problems with work-life integration, anxiety, depression, suicide) and professional consequences (for example, impaired job performance, occupational burnout). Studies involving U.S. medical students have revealed that more than one in four medical students experience IP and that those who experience it are at higher risk for burnout.
 

Surveying IS

IS, which is not a formal psychiatric diagnosis, is defined as having feelings of uncertainty, inadequacy, and being undeserving of one’s achievements despite evidence to the contrary. There are five subtypes of IS:

• Perfectionist: insecurity related to self-imposed, unachievable goals
• Expert: feeling inadequate from lacking sufficient knowledge
• Superperson: assuming excessive workloads just to feel okay among peers
• Natural genius: experiencing shame when it takes effort to develop a skill
• Soloist: believing that requesting help is a sign of weakness

Risk factors

Studies suggest that IS is a problem early in the physician training process. There is limited information on IS among physicians in practice.

Because transitions represent a risk factor for IP, the frequent rotation between clerkships and being a “perpetual novice” during medical school training may contribute to the high prevalence. Qualitative studies suggest that, once in practice, other professional experiences (for example, unfavorable patient outcomes, patient complaints, rejection of grants or manuscripts, and poor teaching evaluations or patient satisfaction scores) may contribute to IP.
 

Impact on doctors

Several methods have been used to classify how much the phenomenon interferes with a person’s life. The Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale is a 20-item scale that asks respondents to indicate how well each item characterizes their experience on a 5-point scale. Options range from “not at all” to “very true.” The sum of responses to the individual items is used to create an aggregate score (IP score). The higher the score, the more frequently and seriously IP interferes with a person’s life.

A simplified version of the IP score was used in a study of 3,237 U.S. doctors that investigated the association between IS and burnout among doctors and to compare their rates of IS with those of other professionals.

Mean IP scores were higher for female physicians than for male physicians (mean, 10.91 vs. 9.12; P < .001). Scores decreased with age and were lower among those who were married or widowed.

With respect to professional characteristics, IP scores were greater among those in academic practice or who worked in the Veterans Affairs medical system and decreased with years in practice.

The highest IP scores were among pediatric subspecialists, general pediatricians, and emergency medicine physicians. Scores were lowest among ophthalmologists, radiologists, and orthopedic surgeons. IP has been independently associated with the risk of burnout and low professional fulfillment.
 

Lessening the impact

An article commenting on the study highlighted the following expert practice strategies that doctors can use to reduce the impact of IS in their professional life.

• Review and celebrate feats that have led to your professional role.
• Share concerns with trusted colleagues who can validate your accomplishments and normalize your feelings by reporting their own struggles with IS.
• Combat perfectionism by accepting that it is okay to be good enough when meeting the challenges of a demanding profession.
• Exercise self-compassion as an alternative to relying on an external locus of self-worth.
• Understand that IS may be common, especially during transitions, such as when entering medical school, graduate medical training, or starting a new career.

This article was translated from Univadis Italy. A version appeared on Medscape.com.

Brain disorders, including mental illness, neurologic conditions, and stroke, account for more than 15% of all health loss worldwide – more than either cardiovascular disease or cancer – at huge cost to health care systems and society, an analysis of data from the most recent Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study shows.

“The burden of brain conditions will increase as populations continue to grow and age,” said study presenter Shayla Smith, MPH, an epidemiologist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the University of Washington, Seattle, in a press release.

“By 2050, more than 50 million people will be aged 65-79,” she explained, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic “has also influenced the prevalence of mental disorders globally, as people were forced to isolate and social networks broke down.”

Other factors related to brain disorders, she noted, include education level, obesity, and smoking.

“There’s still research to be done on what is the most effective way to maintain brain health, but some literature suggests a healthy brain can be achieved through a healthy lifestyle of managing conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, limiting alcohol consumption and smoking, prioritizing sleep, eating healthy, and staying physically and mentally active,” said Ms. Smith.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Congress of the European Academy of Neurology.
 

An ‘ambitious exercise’

Coinvestigator Xaviera Steele, also from the IHME, told press conference attendees that the institute was established at the University of Washington in 2007 with the aim of “standardizing the measurement of health outcomes around the world and for all health conditions.”

A central part of that is the GBD study, “which is a very ambitious exercise in descriptive epidemiology in an effort to systematically quantify health loss” due to disease, injury, and risk factors over time, stratified by country, region, age, and sex. In addition, researchers are mapping and projecting trends over the next century and are estimating disease expenditure by country, by type of expense, and by condition “to derive a health care access and quality score for each health system in the world,” Ms. Steele said.

They are also estimating exposure to risk factors, how those risk factors contribute to health burden, and associated health outcomes by race and ethnicity to reflect the “disparities that we know are very prevalent in countries such as the United States.” From that work, Ms. Steele said that brain health and related conditions “do emerge as one of the more pressing challenges of the 21st century.”
 

Increase in dementia, mental health conditions

The data, which were gathered from 200,000 sources by the IHME, indicate that the number of individuals aged 65 years or older will increase by 350% by 2100. Ms. Steele underlined that “policy action will be needed to help families, who will struggle to provide high-quality care for their loved ones with dementia at a reasonable cost.”

The IHME calculates that in Europe health care spending on Alzheimer’s disease will increase by 226% between 2015 and 2040.

Turning to other conditions, Ms. Steele showed that since 1990, the number of individuals living with anxiety in the European region has increased by 14%, while the number living with depressive disorders has gone up by 13%.

Worldwide, the figures are even starker. Depression is estimated to affect 300 million people across the globe, which represents a 71% increase since 1990. The number of strokes increased by 95% over the same period.

Nevertheless, the “impact of brain conditions such as stroke has decreased since the 1990s due to improved treatments available,” Ms. Smith noted in the press release.

To estimate the toll caused by brain conditions, including neurologic disorders, mental disorders, cerebrovascular disease, brain cancer, brain injuries, and select infectious conditions, the researchers calculated disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).

This, Ms. Smith explained in her presentation, “captures the morbidity and mortality associated with brain conditions” and is adjusted for patient location, age, and sex.

The investigators found that, globally, brain conditions accounted for more than 15% of all health loss in 2021, at 406 DALYs – more than the 206 million DALYs that were associated with cancer, and the 402 million that were linked to cardiovascular disease.

This health loss is associated with a $1.22 trillion loss in income for people living with health disorders worldwide and accounts for $1.14 trillion in direct health care costs.

The burden of mental disorders, neurologic conditions, and stroke is expected to increase dramatically between now and 2050, said Ms. Smith, who noted that health loss linked to brain conditions is higher in younger patients. This will create “new challenges for health systems, employers, patients, and families,” she said in the press release.

“Our goal is to see an improved prevention and treatment landscape for other brain conditions and reverse the growing health loss that we are currently forecasting.”
 

Worrying increase in stroke

Jurgita Valaikiene, MD, PhD, center of neurology, clinic of neurology and neurosurgery, Vilnius (Lithuania) University Faculty of Medicine, who chaired the session, was taken aback by the findings, particularly by the worldwide increase in stroke cases.

“I work in stroke,” she said, and “we spend a lot of time on the diagnosis of stroke” and its prevention. “We try to be faster, to catch asymptomatic stenosis in the neck or head, and to apply the best medical treatment to avoid a stroke. But despite that, the numbers are increasing. I understand the population is getting older ... but still it’s a huge number.”

Dr. Valaikiene pointed out that stroke is not necessarily a condition of aging, insofar as increasing age “is not related directly to stenosis in the neck. “For example, we can have healthier vessels in older age and unhealthy vessels, with high-grade stenosis, in someone aged 30 or 40 years.”

“There are a lot of risk factors, such as smoking, physical activity, and so on. It depends on the individual,” she added.

The study was funded by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Brain disorders, including mental illness, neurologic conditions, and stroke, account for more than 15% of all health loss worldwide – more than either cardiovascular disease or cancer – at huge cost to health care systems and society, an analysis of data from the most recent Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study shows.

“The burden of brain conditions will increase as populations continue to grow and age,” said study presenter Shayla Smith, MPH, an epidemiologist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the University of Washington, Seattle, in a press release.

“By 2050, more than 50 million people will be aged 65-79,” she explained, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic “has also influenced the prevalence of mental disorders globally, as people were forced to isolate and social networks broke down.”

Other factors related to brain disorders, she noted, include education level, obesity, and smoking.

“There’s still research to be done on what is the most effective way to maintain brain health, but some literature suggests a healthy brain can be achieved through a healthy lifestyle of managing conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, limiting alcohol consumption and smoking, prioritizing sleep, eating healthy, and staying physically and mentally active,” said Ms. Smith.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Congress of the European Academy of Neurology.
 

An ‘ambitious exercise’

Coinvestigator Xaviera Steele, also from the IHME, told press conference attendees that the institute was established at the University of Washington in 2007 with the aim of “standardizing the measurement of health outcomes around the world and for all health conditions.”

A central part of that is the GBD study, “which is a very ambitious exercise in descriptive epidemiology in an effort to systematically quantify health loss” due to disease, injury, and risk factors over time, stratified by country, region, age, and sex. In addition, researchers are mapping and projecting trends over the next century and are estimating disease expenditure by country, by type of expense, and by condition “to derive a health care access and quality score for each health system in the world,” Ms. Steele said.

They are also estimating exposure to risk factors, how those risk factors contribute to health burden, and associated health outcomes by race and ethnicity to reflect the “disparities that we know are very prevalent in countries such as the United States.” From that work, Ms. Steele said that brain health and related conditions “do emerge as one of the more pressing challenges of the 21st century.”
 

Increase in dementia, mental health conditions

The data, which were gathered from 200,000 sources by the IHME, indicate that the number of individuals aged 65 years or older will increase by 350% by 2100. Ms. Steele underlined that “policy action will be needed to help families, who will struggle to provide high-quality care for their loved ones with dementia at a reasonable cost.”

The IHME calculates that in Europe health care spending on Alzheimer’s disease will increase by 226% between 2015 and 2040.

Turning to other conditions, Ms. Steele showed that since 1990, the number of individuals living with anxiety in the European region has increased by 14%, while the number living with depressive disorders has gone up by 13%.

Worldwide, the figures are even starker. Depression is estimated to affect 300 million people across the globe, which represents a 71% increase since 1990. The number of strokes increased by 95% over the same period.

Nevertheless, the “impact of brain conditions such as stroke has decreased since the 1990s due to improved treatments available,” Ms. Smith noted in the press release.

To estimate the toll caused by brain conditions, including neurologic disorders, mental disorders, cerebrovascular disease, brain cancer, brain injuries, and select infectious conditions, the researchers calculated disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).

This, Ms. Smith explained in her presentation, “captures the morbidity and mortality associated with brain conditions” and is adjusted for patient location, age, and sex.

The investigators found that, globally, brain conditions accounted for more than 15% of all health loss in 2021, at 406 DALYs – more than the 206 million DALYs that were associated with cancer, and the 402 million that were linked to cardiovascular disease.

This health loss is associated with a $1.22 trillion loss in income for people living with health disorders worldwide and accounts for $1.14 trillion in direct health care costs.

The burden of mental disorders, neurologic conditions, and stroke is expected to increase dramatically between now and 2050, said Ms. Smith, who noted that health loss linked to brain conditions is higher in younger patients. This will create “new challenges for health systems, employers, patients, and families,” she said in the press release.

“Our goal is to see an improved prevention and treatment landscape for other brain conditions and reverse the growing health loss that we are currently forecasting.”
 

Worrying increase in stroke

Jurgita Valaikiene, MD, PhD, center of neurology, clinic of neurology and neurosurgery, Vilnius (Lithuania) University Faculty of Medicine, who chaired the session, was taken aback by the findings, particularly by the worldwide increase in stroke cases.

“I work in stroke,” she said, and “we spend a lot of time on the diagnosis of stroke” and its prevention. “We try to be faster, to catch asymptomatic stenosis in the neck or head, and to apply the best medical treatment to avoid a stroke. But despite that, the numbers are increasing. I understand the population is getting older ... but still it’s a huge number.”

Dr. Valaikiene pointed out that stroke is not necessarily a condition of aging, insofar as increasing age “is not related directly to stenosis in the neck. “For example, we can have healthier vessels in older age and unhealthy vessels, with high-grade stenosis, in someone aged 30 or 40 years.”

“There are a lot of risk factors, such as smoking, physical activity, and so on. It depends on the individual,” she added.

The study was funded by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Brain disorders, including mental illness, neurologic conditions, and stroke, account for more than 15% of all health loss worldwide – more than either cardiovascular disease or cancer – at huge cost to health care systems and society, an analysis of data from the most recent Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study shows.

“The burden of brain conditions will increase as populations continue to grow and age,” said study presenter Shayla Smith, MPH, an epidemiologist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the University of Washington, Seattle, in a press release.

“By 2050, more than 50 million people will be aged 65-79,” she explained, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic “has also influenced the prevalence of mental disorders globally, as people were forced to isolate and social networks broke down.”

Other factors related to brain disorders, she noted, include education level, obesity, and smoking.

“There’s still research to be done on what is the most effective way to maintain brain health, but some literature suggests a healthy brain can be achieved through a healthy lifestyle of managing conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, limiting alcohol consumption and smoking, prioritizing sleep, eating healthy, and staying physically and mentally active,” said Ms. Smith.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Congress of the European Academy of Neurology.
 

An ‘ambitious exercise’

Coinvestigator Xaviera Steele, also from the IHME, told press conference attendees that the institute was established at the University of Washington in 2007 with the aim of “standardizing the measurement of health outcomes around the world and for all health conditions.”

A central part of that is the GBD study, “which is a very ambitious exercise in descriptive epidemiology in an effort to systematically quantify health loss” due to disease, injury, and risk factors over time, stratified by country, region, age, and sex. In addition, researchers are mapping and projecting trends over the next century and are estimating disease expenditure by country, by type of expense, and by condition “to derive a health care access and quality score for each health system in the world,” Ms. Steele said.

They are also estimating exposure to risk factors, how those risk factors contribute to health burden, and associated health outcomes by race and ethnicity to reflect the “disparities that we know are very prevalent in countries such as the United States.” From that work, Ms. Steele said that brain health and related conditions “do emerge as one of the more pressing challenges of the 21st century.”
 

Increase in dementia, mental health conditions

The data, which were gathered from 200,000 sources by the IHME, indicate that the number of individuals aged 65 years or older will increase by 350% by 2100. Ms. Steele underlined that “policy action will be needed to help families, who will struggle to provide high-quality care for their loved ones with dementia at a reasonable cost.”

The IHME calculates that in Europe health care spending on Alzheimer’s disease will increase by 226% between 2015 and 2040.

Turning to other conditions, Ms. Steele showed that since 1990, the number of individuals living with anxiety in the European region has increased by 14%, while the number living with depressive disorders has gone up by 13%.

Worldwide, the figures are even starker. Depression is estimated to affect 300 million people across the globe, which represents a 71% increase since 1990. The number of strokes increased by 95% over the same period.

Nevertheless, the “impact of brain conditions such as stroke has decreased since the 1990s due to improved treatments available,” Ms. Smith noted in the press release.

To estimate the toll caused by brain conditions, including neurologic disorders, mental disorders, cerebrovascular disease, brain cancer, brain injuries, and select infectious conditions, the researchers calculated disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).

This, Ms. Smith explained in her presentation, “captures the morbidity and mortality associated with brain conditions” and is adjusted for patient location, age, and sex.

The investigators found that, globally, brain conditions accounted for more than 15% of all health loss in 2021, at 406 DALYs – more than the 206 million DALYs that were associated with cancer, and the 402 million that were linked to cardiovascular disease.

This health loss is associated with a $1.22 trillion loss in income for people living with health disorders worldwide and accounts for $1.14 trillion in direct health care costs.

The burden of mental disorders, neurologic conditions, and stroke is expected to increase dramatically between now and 2050, said Ms. Smith, who noted that health loss linked to brain conditions is higher in younger patients. This will create “new challenges for health systems, employers, patients, and families,” she said in the press release.

“Our goal is to see an improved prevention and treatment landscape for other brain conditions and reverse the growing health loss that we are currently forecasting.”
 

Worrying increase in stroke

Jurgita Valaikiene, MD, PhD, center of neurology, clinic of neurology and neurosurgery, Vilnius (Lithuania) University Faculty of Medicine, who chaired the session, was taken aback by the findings, particularly by the worldwide increase in stroke cases.

“I work in stroke,” she said, and “we spend a lot of time on the diagnosis of stroke” and its prevention. “We try to be faster, to catch asymptomatic stenosis in the neck or head, and to apply the best medical treatment to avoid a stroke. But despite that, the numbers are increasing. I understand the population is getting older ... but still it’s a huge number.”

Dr. Valaikiene pointed out that stroke is not necessarily a condition of aging, insofar as increasing age “is not related directly to stenosis in the neck. “For example, we can have healthier vessels in older age and unhealthy vessels, with high-grade stenosis, in someone aged 30 or 40 years.”

“There are a lot of risk factors, such as smoking, physical activity, and so on. It depends on the individual,” she added.

The study was funded by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Like many stressful chronic conditions, hearing loss appears to foster fatigue, according to an analysis of National Health and Nutrition Examination Study data published in JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, examined NHANES data from 2015 to 2016 and 2017 to 2018, including findings on more than 3,000 participants aged 40 and older. Based on the audiometry subset of NHANES data, hearing loss was associated with a higher frequency of fatigue – even after adjustment for demographics, comorbidities, and lifestyle variables such as smoking, alcohol, and body mass index, in a nationally representative sample of adults in middle and older age.

“We wanted to get away from small clinical data and take a look at the population level to see if hearing loss was related to fatigue and, further perhaps, to cognitive decline,” said coauthor Nicholas S. Reed, AuD, PhD, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, in an interview. “We found people with hearing loss had twice the risk of reporting fatigue nearly every day versus those not reporting fatigue.” This cross-sectional study provides needed population-based evidence from a nationally representative sample, according to Dr. Reed and associates, who have been researching the possible connection between age-related hearing loss, physical activity levels, and cognitive decline.
 

Study details

The 3,031 age-eligible participants had a mean age of 58 years; 48% were male, and 10% were Black. Some hearing loss was reported by 24%.

They responded to the following question: “Over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by feeling tired or having little energy?” Response categories were “not at all,” “several days,” “more than half the days,” and “nearly every day.” Those with hearing loss were more likely to report fatigue for more than half the days (relative risk ratio, 2.16; 95% confidence interval, 1.27-3.67) and nearly every day (RRR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.16-3.65), compared with not having fatigue. Additional adjustment for comorbidities and depressive symptoms showed similar results.

Hearing loss was defined as > 25 decibels hearing level (dB HL) versus normal hearing of ≤ 25 dB HL, and continuously by every 10 dB HL poorer. Each 10-dB HL of audiometric hearing loss was associated with a higher likelihood of reporting fatigue nearly every day (RRR, 1.24; 95% CI,1.04-1.47), but not for more than half the days.

The association tended to be stronger in younger, non-Hispanic White, and female participants, but statistical testing did not support differential associations by age, sex, race, or ethnicity.

While some might intuitively expect hearing loss to cause noticeably more fatigue in middle-aged people who may be straining to hear during hours in the daily workplace or at home, Dr. Reed said older people probably feel more hearing-related fatigue owing to age and comorbidities. “And higher physical activity levels of middle-aged adults can be protective.”

Dr. Reed advised primary care physicians to be sure to ask about fatigue and hearing status during wellness exams and take appropriate steps to diagnose and correct hearing problems. “Make sure hearing is part of the health equation because hearing loss can be part of the culprit. And it’s very possible that hearing loss is also contributing to cognitive decline.”

Dr. Reed’s group will soon release data on a clinical trial on hearing loss and cognitive decline.

The authors called for studies incorporating fatigue assessments in order to clarify how hearing loss might contribute to physical and mental fatigue and how it could be associated with downstream outcomes such as fatigue-related physical impairment. Dr. Reed reported grants from the National Institute on Aging during the conduct of the study and stock compensation from the Neosensory Advisory Board outside of the submitted work. Several coauthors reported academic or government research funding as well as fees and honoraria from various private-sector companies.

Like many stressful chronic conditions, hearing loss appears to foster fatigue, according to an analysis of National Health and Nutrition Examination Study data published in JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, examined NHANES data from 2015 to 2016 and 2017 to 2018, including findings on more than 3,000 participants aged 40 and older. Based on the audiometry subset of NHANES data, hearing loss was associated with a higher frequency of fatigue – even after adjustment for demographics, comorbidities, and lifestyle variables such as smoking, alcohol, and body mass index, in a nationally representative sample of adults in middle and older age.

“We wanted to get away from small clinical data and take a look at the population level to see if hearing loss was related to fatigue and, further perhaps, to cognitive decline,” said coauthor Nicholas S. Reed, AuD, PhD, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, in an interview. “We found people with hearing loss had twice the risk of reporting fatigue nearly every day versus those not reporting fatigue.” This cross-sectional study provides needed population-based evidence from a nationally representative sample, according to Dr. Reed and associates, who have been researching the possible connection between age-related hearing loss, physical activity levels, and cognitive decline.
 

Study details

The 3,031 age-eligible participants had a mean age of 58 years; 48% were male, and 10% were Black. Some hearing loss was reported by 24%.

They responded to the following question: “Over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by feeling tired or having little energy?” Response categories were “not at all,” “several days,” “more than half the days,” and “nearly every day.” Those with hearing loss were more likely to report fatigue for more than half the days (relative risk ratio, 2.16; 95% confidence interval, 1.27-3.67) and nearly every day (RRR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.16-3.65), compared with not having fatigue. Additional adjustment for comorbidities and depressive symptoms showed similar results.

Hearing loss was defined as > 25 decibels hearing level (dB HL) versus normal hearing of ≤ 25 dB HL, and continuously by every 10 dB HL poorer. Each 10-dB HL of audiometric hearing loss was associated with a higher likelihood of reporting fatigue nearly every day (RRR, 1.24; 95% CI,1.04-1.47), but not for more than half the days.

The association tended to be stronger in younger, non-Hispanic White, and female participants, but statistical testing did not support differential associations by age, sex, race, or ethnicity.

While some might intuitively expect hearing loss to cause noticeably more fatigue in middle-aged people who may be straining to hear during hours in the daily workplace or at home, Dr. Reed said older people probably feel more hearing-related fatigue owing to age and comorbidities. “And higher physical activity levels of middle-aged adults can be protective.”

Dr. Reed advised primary care physicians to be sure to ask about fatigue and hearing status during wellness exams and take appropriate steps to diagnose and correct hearing problems. “Make sure hearing is part of the health equation because hearing loss can be part of the culprit. And it’s very possible that hearing loss is also contributing to cognitive decline.”

Dr. Reed’s group will soon release data on a clinical trial on hearing loss and cognitive decline.

The authors called for studies incorporating fatigue assessments in order to clarify how hearing loss might contribute to physical and mental fatigue and how it could be associated with downstream outcomes such as fatigue-related physical impairment. Dr. Reed reported grants from the National Institute on Aging during the conduct of the study and stock compensation from the Neosensory Advisory Board outside of the submitted work. Several coauthors reported academic or government research funding as well as fees and honoraria from various private-sector companies.

Like many stressful chronic conditions, hearing loss appears to foster fatigue, according to an analysis of National Health and Nutrition Examination Study data published in JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, examined NHANES data from 2015 to 2016 and 2017 to 2018, including findings on more than 3,000 participants aged 40 and older. Based on the audiometry subset of NHANES data, hearing loss was associated with a higher frequency of fatigue – even after adjustment for demographics, comorbidities, and lifestyle variables such as smoking, alcohol, and body mass index, in a nationally representative sample of adults in middle and older age.

“We wanted to get away from small clinical data and take a look at the population level to see if hearing loss was related to fatigue and, further perhaps, to cognitive decline,” said coauthor Nicholas S. Reed, AuD, PhD, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, in an interview. “We found people with hearing loss had twice the risk of reporting fatigue nearly every day versus those not reporting fatigue.” This cross-sectional study provides needed population-based evidence from a nationally representative sample, according to Dr. Reed and associates, who have been researching the possible connection between age-related hearing loss, physical activity levels, and cognitive decline.
 

Study details

The 3,031 age-eligible participants had a mean age of 58 years; 48% were male, and 10% were Black. Some hearing loss was reported by 24%.

They responded to the following question: “Over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by feeling tired or having little energy?” Response categories were “not at all,” “several days,” “more than half the days,” and “nearly every day.” Those with hearing loss were more likely to report fatigue for more than half the days (relative risk ratio, 2.16; 95% confidence interval, 1.27-3.67) and nearly every day (RRR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.16-3.65), compared with not having fatigue. Additional adjustment for comorbidities and depressive symptoms showed similar results.

Hearing loss was defined as > 25 decibels hearing level (dB HL) versus normal hearing of ≤ 25 dB HL, and continuously by every 10 dB HL poorer. Each 10-dB HL of audiometric hearing loss was associated with a higher likelihood of reporting fatigue nearly every day (RRR, 1.24; 95% CI,1.04-1.47), but not for more than half the days.

The association tended to be stronger in younger, non-Hispanic White, and female participants, but statistical testing did not support differential associations by age, sex, race, or ethnicity.

While some might intuitively expect hearing loss to cause noticeably more fatigue in middle-aged people who may be straining to hear during hours in the daily workplace or at home, Dr. Reed said older people probably feel more hearing-related fatigue owing to age and comorbidities. “And higher physical activity levels of middle-aged adults can be protective.”

Dr. Reed advised primary care physicians to be sure to ask about fatigue and hearing status during wellness exams and take appropriate steps to diagnose and correct hearing problems. “Make sure hearing is part of the health equation because hearing loss can be part of the culprit. And it’s very possible that hearing loss is also contributing to cognitive decline.”

Dr. Reed’s group will soon release data on a clinical trial on hearing loss and cognitive decline.

The authors called for studies incorporating fatigue assessments in order to clarify how hearing loss might contribute to physical and mental fatigue and how it could be associated with downstream outcomes such as fatigue-related physical impairment. Dr. Reed reported grants from the National Institute on Aging during the conduct of the study and stock compensation from the Neosensory Advisory Board outside of the submitted work. Several coauthors reported academic or government research funding as well as fees and honoraria from various private-sector companies.

For understanding the evolution in child neurology over the past 30 years, it would make sense to start with the science, particularly genetics, that have led to treatments and even cures for numerous inherited diseases over that time. When John Bodensteiner, MD, a pillar in the field of child neurology, was asked, he started with something different.

Parent advocacy accelerates advances in rare pediatric diseases

For the progress in many of the rare diseases seen by child neurologists in the last few decades, Dr. Bodensteiner first acknowledged parent support. “The concept was simple initially. For so many of these relatively rare diseases, like the Rett and Sturge-Weber syndromes, parents were learning of them for the first time. The support groups helped parents understand they were not alone. But it then evolved,” recalled Dr. Bodensteiner, who has been a professor of pediatrics and neurology at numerous institutions, most recently the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Many of these support groups first formed, or at least gained momentum, in the 1990s. “As the support groups grew, the members expanded their role to support research, in addition to supporting each other. They ended up volunteering their own data, providing more information about the epidemiology and disease course. They offered tissue samples for experimental studies. They enrolled their children in trials. And they raised funds,” Dr. Bodensteiner explained.

The impact of this advocacy has been enormous, according to Dr. Bodensteiner. As an expert in neuromuscular diseases, he worked directly with several of these groups.

Although the growth in parent advocacy took place in parallel with major advances in genetics that were driving new insights into disease pathophysiology, Dr. Bodensteiner characterized parent advocates as important partners in accelerating the transition of new information to clinical utility. He suggested that there is little doubt about the importance of their role in moving the science forward by drawing attention to rare disorders that had few, if any, treatment options at the time the advocacy groups were formed.

Since the 1990s, the list of childhood neurologic diseases for which there has been meaningful progress is long. Dr. Bodensteiner selected several examples. For Rett syndrome, key molecular mechanisms have now been isolated, providing meaningful targets that show potential for treatment. For spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), therapies have become available, one of which involves gene replacement that appears to provide cure if initiated early in life. For tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), gene targets are showing strong promise for controlling seizures and other TSC manifestations.

It has also to be acknowledged that much of the ongoing expansion in knowledge taking place across diseases in pediatric neurology would have taken place with or without parent support. Dr. Bodensteiner singled out seizure disorders only as an illustration. “In the various forms of epilepsy, we now understand mechanisms in much greater detail than we did even a decade ago, let alone 30 years ago,” Dr. Bodensteiner said. In the context of the seizure medicines once widely employed on an empirical basis, “we now often have a clearer picture of why one drug works and not another.”
 

Growing pains: Child neurology evolves from a subspecialty to a specialty

Until about 10 years ago, child neurology was a subspecialty, variably placed within the departments of pediatrics or neurology based on institution. The decision to elevate child neurology to its own specialty solved some issues but created others, according to Dr. Bodensteiner.

“The initial problem was there was no immediate funding mechanism of residency slots and training,” Dr. Bodensteiner explained. The issue was particularly acute at smaller centers that had been able to support a subspecialty within another department but struggled with a new autonomous unit.

So far, the training requirements for specializing in child neurology remain largely unchanged. Clinical training requires 2 years of straight pediatrics, 1 year of adult neurology, 1 year of basic neurological science,” and 1 year of child neurology, but Dr. Bodensteiner said it might be time to reconsider. He pointed out that neurologists in general and child neurologists specifically are becoming increasingly focused in one area of expertise, such as epilepsy, neuromuscular diseases, and neurodevelopmental delay.

“It can be argued that a few months spent in a dementia clinic during training might not be the best use of time for a child neurologist working in congenital neurological diseases,” he said.

One consequence of the increasing degree of specialization in neurology overall, not just child neurology, has been the changes in recertification, according to Dr. Bodensteiner. Following a model used in other specialties, recertification in child neurology was initially based on an every-10-year examination. Ultimately, this was recognized as inconsistent with the target of keeping clinicians up to date.

“In general, I think that a lot of people waited for 9.5 years before cramming for an examination that was not necessarily relevant to the area in which they were working,” Dr. Bodensteiner said.

The revised process, carried out on an every-3-year cycle, involves board-guided review of the medical literature in 10 topic areas. Child neurologists can elect an article in any of the topic areas, but to complete their recertification process they must read articles in eight of these areas. Dr. Bodensteiner said that this approach has been more popular and is presumably more useful for staying abreast of developments.
 

Increased specialization necessitates collaboration

The radical increase in specialization in child neurology, like neurology in general, has been a necessary consequence of an avalanche of new information as advances in the field accelerate, but Dr. Bodensteiner cautioned that it is important for those working in these specialized areas to collaborate with others outside of their field of expertise.

“We cannot recognize what we do not know,” Dr. Bodensteiner said. If subspecialization within neurology is critical to stay current with rapid advances in very different diseases, then it also means that clinicians at every level, including within the field of child neurology, need to know when to collaborate or refer to ensure early diagnosis in challenging cases.

“Epileptologists have been trying for years to make it widely known that patients resistant to standard medications deserve referral, but I think this is increasingly true across domains,” Dr. Bodensteiner said. Neurology and child neurology are not alone, but the window of opportunity for effective intervention in children with a progressive disease might be particularly limited.

“The point is that this is more of a risk than it was 20 years ago,” said Dr. Bodensteiner, referring to the growth in new therapies. He cited data suggesting that a causative gene mutation can be identified in about 60% of rare diseases, which is a relatively new phenomenon. Of advances to improve outcomes, faster triage is becoming one of the most important in this increasingly specialized world.

With the growth in knowledge, “there is really no way to be an expert across all diseases in child neurology,” Dr. Bodensteiner said. “As physicians become increasingly insulated in their areas of expertise, I think there needs to be a greater emphasis on communication and collaboration.”

To some degree, this type of specialization has always existed, but Dr. Bodensteiner said the intensification of this trend is among the ways the field has most evolved over the past few decades. In inherited diseases that affect early child development, working together for a prompt diagnosis has assumed a new level of urgency.

For understanding the evolution in child neurology over the past 30 years, it would make sense to start with the science, particularly genetics, that have led to treatments and even cures for numerous inherited diseases over that time. When John Bodensteiner, MD, a pillar in the field of child neurology, was asked, he started with something different.

Parent advocacy accelerates advances in rare pediatric diseases

For the progress in many of the rare diseases seen by child neurologists in the last few decades, Dr. Bodensteiner first acknowledged parent support. “The concept was simple initially. For so many of these relatively rare diseases, like the Rett and Sturge-Weber syndromes, parents were learning of them for the first time. The support groups helped parents understand they were not alone. But it then evolved,” recalled Dr. Bodensteiner, who has been a professor of pediatrics and neurology at numerous institutions, most recently the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Many of these support groups first formed, or at least gained momentum, in the 1990s. “As the support groups grew, the members expanded their role to support research, in addition to supporting each other. They ended up volunteering their own data, providing more information about the epidemiology and disease course. They offered tissue samples for experimental studies. They enrolled their children in trials. And they raised funds,” Dr. Bodensteiner explained.

The impact of this advocacy has been enormous, according to Dr. Bodensteiner. As an expert in neuromuscular diseases, he worked directly with several of these groups.

Although the growth in parent advocacy took place in parallel with major advances in genetics that were driving new insights into disease pathophysiology, Dr. Bodensteiner characterized parent advocates as important partners in accelerating the transition of new information to clinical utility. He suggested that there is little doubt about the importance of their role in moving the science forward by drawing attention to rare disorders that had few, if any, treatment options at the time the advocacy groups were formed.

Since the 1990s, the list of childhood neurologic diseases for which there has been meaningful progress is long. Dr. Bodensteiner selected several examples. For Rett syndrome, key molecular mechanisms have now been isolated, providing meaningful targets that show potential for treatment. For spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), therapies have become available, one of which involves gene replacement that appears to provide cure if initiated early in life. For tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), gene targets are showing strong promise for controlling seizures and other TSC manifestations.

It has also to be acknowledged that much of the ongoing expansion in knowledge taking place across diseases in pediatric neurology would have taken place with or without parent support. Dr. Bodensteiner singled out seizure disorders only as an illustration. “In the various forms of epilepsy, we now understand mechanisms in much greater detail than we did even a decade ago, let alone 30 years ago,” Dr. Bodensteiner said. In the context of the seizure medicines once widely employed on an empirical basis, “we now often have a clearer picture of why one drug works and not another.”
 

Growing pains: Child neurology evolves from a subspecialty to a specialty

Until about 10 years ago, child neurology was a subspecialty, variably placed within the departments of pediatrics or neurology based on institution. The decision to elevate child neurology to its own specialty solved some issues but created others, according to Dr. Bodensteiner.

“The initial problem was there was no immediate funding mechanism of residency slots and training,” Dr. Bodensteiner explained. The issue was particularly acute at smaller centers that had been able to support a subspecialty within another department but struggled with a new autonomous unit.

So far, the training requirements for specializing in child neurology remain largely unchanged. Clinical training requires 2 years of straight pediatrics, 1 year of adult neurology, 1 year of basic neurological science,” and 1 year of child neurology, but Dr. Bodensteiner said it might be time to reconsider. He pointed out that neurologists in general and child neurologists specifically are becoming increasingly focused in one area of expertise, such as epilepsy, neuromuscular diseases, and neurodevelopmental delay.

“It can be argued that a few months spent in a dementia clinic during training might not be the best use of time for a child neurologist working in congenital neurological diseases,” he said.

One consequence of the increasing degree of specialization in neurology overall, not just child neurology, has been the changes in recertification, according to Dr. Bodensteiner. Following a model used in other specialties, recertification in child neurology was initially based on an every-10-year examination. Ultimately, this was recognized as inconsistent with the target of keeping clinicians up to date.

“In general, I think that a lot of people waited for 9.5 years before cramming for an examination that was not necessarily relevant to the area in which they were working,” Dr. Bodensteiner said.

The revised process, carried out on an every-3-year cycle, involves board-guided review of the medical literature in 10 topic areas. Child neurologists can elect an article in any of the topic areas, but to complete their recertification process they must read articles in eight of these areas. Dr. Bodensteiner said that this approach has been more popular and is presumably more useful for staying abreast of developments.
 

Increased specialization necessitates collaboration

The radical increase in specialization in child neurology, like neurology in general, has been a necessary consequence of an avalanche of new information as advances in the field accelerate, but Dr. Bodensteiner cautioned that it is important for those working in these specialized areas to collaborate with others outside of their field of expertise.

“We cannot recognize what we do not know,” Dr. Bodensteiner said. If subspecialization within neurology is critical to stay current with rapid advances in very different diseases, then it also means that clinicians at every level, including within the field of child neurology, need to know when to collaborate or refer to ensure early diagnosis in challenging cases.

“Epileptologists have been trying for years to make it widely known that patients resistant to standard medications deserve referral, but I think this is increasingly true across domains,” Dr. Bodensteiner said. Neurology and child neurology are not alone, but the window of opportunity for effective intervention in children with a progressive disease might be particularly limited.

“The point is that this is more of a risk than it was 20 years ago,” said Dr. Bodensteiner, referring to the growth in new therapies. He cited data suggesting that a causative gene mutation can be identified in about 60% of rare diseases, which is a relatively new phenomenon. Of advances to improve outcomes, faster triage is becoming one of the most important in this increasingly specialized world.

With the growth in knowledge, “there is really no way to be an expert across all diseases in child neurology,” Dr. Bodensteiner said. “As physicians become increasingly insulated in their areas of expertise, I think there needs to be a greater emphasis on communication and collaboration.”

To some degree, this type of specialization has always existed, but Dr. Bodensteiner said the intensification of this trend is among the ways the field has most evolved over the past few decades. In inherited diseases that affect early child development, working together for a prompt diagnosis has assumed a new level of urgency.

For understanding the evolution in child neurology over the past 30 years, it would make sense to start with the science, particularly genetics, that have led to treatments and even cures for numerous inherited diseases over that time. When John Bodensteiner, MD, a pillar in the field of child neurology, was asked, he started with something different.

Parent advocacy accelerates advances in rare pediatric diseases

For the progress in many of the rare diseases seen by child neurologists in the last few decades, Dr. Bodensteiner first acknowledged parent support. “The concept was simple initially. For so many of these relatively rare diseases, like the Rett and Sturge-Weber syndromes, parents were learning of them for the first time. The support groups helped parents understand they were not alone. But it then evolved,” recalled Dr. Bodensteiner, who has been a professor of pediatrics and neurology at numerous institutions, most recently the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Many of these support groups first formed, or at least gained momentum, in the 1990s. “As the support groups grew, the members expanded their role to support research, in addition to supporting each other. They ended up volunteering their own data, providing more information about the epidemiology and disease course. They offered tissue samples for experimental studies. They enrolled their children in trials. And they raised funds,” Dr. Bodensteiner explained.

The impact of this advocacy has been enormous, according to Dr. Bodensteiner. As an expert in neuromuscular diseases, he worked directly with several of these groups.

Although the growth in parent advocacy took place in parallel with major advances in genetics that were driving new insights into disease pathophysiology, Dr. Bodensteiner characterized parent advocates as important partners in accelerating the transition of new information to clinical utility. He suggested that there is little doubt about the importance of their role in moving the science forward by drawing attention to rare disorders that had few, if any, treatment options at the time the advocacy groups were formed.

Since the 1990s, the list of childhood neurologic diseases for which there has been meaningful progress is long. Dr. Bodensteiner selected several examples. For Rett syndrome, key molecular mechanisms have now been isolated, providing meaningful targets that show potential for treatment. For spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), therapies have become available, one of which involves gene replacement that appears to provide cure if initiated early in life. For tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), gene targets are showing strong promise for controlling seizures and other TSC manifestations.

It has also to be acknowledged that much of the ongoing expansion in knowledge taking place across diseases in pediatric neurology would have taken place with or without parent support. Dr. Bodensteiner singled out seizure disorders only as an illustration. “In the various forms of epilepsy, we now understand mechanisms in much greater detail than we did even a decade ago, let alone 30 years ago,” Dr. Bodensteiner said. In the context of the seizure medicines once widely employed on an empirical basis, “we now often have a clearer picture of why one drug works and not another.”
 

Growing pains: Child neurology evolves from a subspecialty to a specialty

Until about 10 years ago, child neurology was a subspecialty, variably placed within the departments of pediatrics or neurology based on institution. The decision to elevate child neurology to its own specialty solved some issues but created others, according to Dr. Bodensteiner.

“The initial problem was there was no immediate funding mechanism of residency slots and training,” Dr. Bodensteiner explained. The issue was particularly acute at smaller centers that had been able to support a subspecialty within another department but struggled with a new autonomous unit.

So far, the training requirements for specializing in child neurology remain largely unchanged. Clinical training requires 2 years of straight pediatrics, 1 year of adult neurology, 1 year of basic neurological science,” and 1 year of child neurology, but Dr. Bodensteiner said it might be time to reconsider. He pointed out that neurologists in general and child neurologists specifically are becoming increasingly focused in one area of expertise, such as epilepsy, neuromuscular diseases, and neurodevelopmental delay.

“It can be argued that a few months spent in a dementia clinic during training might not be the best use of time for a child neurologist working in congenital neurological diseases,” he said.

One consequence of the increasing degree of specialization in neurology overall, not just child neurology, has been the changes in recertification, according to Dr. Bodensteiner. Following a model used in other specialties, recertification in child neurology was initially based on an every-10-year examination. Ultimately, this was recognized as inconsistent with the target of keeping clinicians up to date.

“In general, I think that a lot of people waited for 9.5 years before cramming for an examination that was not necessarily relevant to the area in which they were working,” Dr. Bodensteiner said.

The revised process, carried out on an every-3-year cycle, involves board-guided review of the medical literature in 10 topic areas. Child neurologists can elect an article in any of the topic areas, but to complete their recertification process they must read articles in eight of these areas. Dr. Bodensteiner said that this approach has been more popular and is presumably more useful for staying abreast of developments.
 

Increased specialization necessitates collaboration

The radical increase in specialization in child neurology, like neurology in general, has been a necessary consequence of an avalanche of new information as advances in the field accelerate, but Dr. Bodensteiner cautioned that it is important for those working in these specialized areas to collaborate with others outside of their field of expertise.

“We cannot recognize what we do not know,” Dr. Bodensteiner said. If subspecialization within neurology is critical to stay current with rapid advances in very different diseases, then it also means that clinicians at every level, including within the field of child neurology, need to know when to collaborate or refer to ensure early diagnosis in challenging cases.

“Epileptologists have been trying for years to make it widely known that patients resistant to standard medications deserve referral, but I think this is increasingly true across domains,” Dr. Bodensteiner said. Neurology and child neurology are not alone, but the window of opportunity for effective intervention in children with a progressive disease might be particularly limited.

“The point is that this is more of a risk than it was 20 years ago,” said Dr. Bodensteiner, referring to the growth in new therapies. He cited data suggesting that a causative gene mutation can be identified in about 60% of rare diseases, which is a relatively new phenomenon. Of advances to improve outcomes, faster triage is becoming one of the most important in this increasingly specialized world.

With the growth in knowledge, “there is really no way to be an expert across all diseases in child neurology,” Dr. Bodensteiner said. “As physicians become increasingly insulated in their areas of expertise, I think there needs to be a greater emphasis on communication and collaboration.”

To some degree, this type of specialization has always existed, but Dr. Bodensteiner said the intensification of this trend is among the ways the field has most evolved over the past few decades. In inherited diseases that affect early child development, working together for a prompt diagnosis has assumed a new level of urgency.