Brain Research Success Stories

Brain research success stories are designed to tell elected officials and the public about the recent successes and future potential of neuroscience. They explain how neurological and psychiatric disorders can be overcome only through continued increases in federal biomedical funding.

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Adolescent Brain An estimated 2.7 million children and adolescents suffer from serious emotional or behavioral difficulties.	Age-Related Macular Degeneration An estimated 1.75 million Americans 40 or older have advanced AMD, and several million more are at risk.
Alcoholism More than 17 million Americans either abuse alcohol or have graduated to become alcoholics.	Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia - UPDATED Alzheimer's disease eventually causes substantial memory loss and then death, with no known cure.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis As many as 20,000 people in the United States have ALS, and 5,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.	Autism Autism affects approximately one out of every 250 to 166 babies in the United States.
Bipolar Disorder The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that about 2.3 million American adults have the condition.	Depression - UPDATED Depression affects about 10 percent of Americans over the age of 18 each year.
Down Syndrome DS affects more than 350,000 people in the United States alone.	Dyslexia - UPDATED A staggering 5 to 15 percent of Americans—14.5 to 43.5 million children and adults—have dyslexia.
Dystonia An estimated 300,000 people in North America are living with dystonia.	Epilepsy - UPDATED Worldwide, there are 50 million people affected by the disorder.
Hearing Loss - UPDATED Approximately 28 million Americans have some form of hearing loss, ranging from mild to profound.	Huntington's Disease An estimated 30,000 Americans, or 1 person in 10,000, are living with Huntington’s disease, or HD.
Insomnia One in three people experiences insomnia at some point in their life.	Migraine Migraine is a disabling condition that affects some 30 million Americans.
Multiple Sclerosis - UPDATED About 400,000 Americans have multiple sclerosis. Every week, an estimated 200 more are diagnosed.	Muscular Dystrophy Muscular dystrophies affect an estimated 80,000 people in the United States.
Myasthenia Gravis It has been estimated that over 100,000 people in the United States are affected by MG.	Nicotine Addiction Tobacco topped the leading, preventable causes of death, resulting in 18 percent of total U.S. deaths in 2000.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder OCD affects 3.3 million American adults and is equally common in men and women.	Opiate Addiction Between 750,000 to 1 million people in the United States are addicted to heroin.
Pain Conservatively, an estimated 50 million Americans suffer from some persistent type of pain.	Parkinson's Disease - UPDATED An estimated 1 million people are living with Parkinson’s in the United States.
Pathological Aggression The cost of violence reached more than $158 billion in 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.	Peripheral Neuropathy About 20 million Americans live with the disorder, which often causes severe and crippling pain.
Phobia Phobia, a disabling type of anxiety disorder, affects more than 14 million adults in the United States.	Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - UPDATED Some 5.2 million Americans 18 to 54 have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) every year.
Reading Failure Approximately 36 percent of the nation’s fourth graders cannot read at a basic level.	Schizophrenia - UPDATED Schizophrenia affects about 2 million Americans. Annual costs total about $32.5 billion.
Spinal Cord Injury - UPDATED An estimated 250,000 people are living with spinal cord injury in the United States.	Stroke - UPDATED On average, a stroke occurs every 45 seconds, equaling some 700,000 strokes annually.
Tay-Sachs Disease Even under the best of care, children born with Tay-Sachs disease usually die by age 5.	Tourette Syndrome TS symptoms usually first appear in children between the ages of 7 and 10 years.
Traumatic Brain Injury More than 5 million injured American men, women, and children are living with a TBI-related disability today.	Vision Loss Blindness or low vision affect approximately one in 28 Americans over the age of 40.