One in two people in the US is affected by a neurological disease or disorder

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-people-affected-neurological-disease-disorder.html

35•bikenaga•2mo ago

Comments

tyleo•2mo ago

NYTimes had a podcast today about how the autism category—which used to mean something closer to nonverbal or mentally disabled—had broadened and includes a lot more people now but with symptoms that aren’t at the same severity.

I feel like that’s true for a lot of these categories. I feel like severity of illness is really important when talking about mental disorders since the spectrum is so wide.

potato3732842•2mo ago

People want pills and because you can't just get pills for symptoms cheaply the industry has responded to demand and diagnosed everyone.

It's like a cross between everyone at a bank being a VP and your doctor being a bro and prescribing you viagra for blood pressure so insurance picks up the tab.

oliyoung•2mo ago

ASD isn't treatable with medication. Its impacts can, but Autism itself is largely pharmalogically untreatable

potato3732842•2mo ago

Treat and "mask symptoms so I can hold a job at my full potential" are different things. And even if ASD isn't a whole bunch of other things are.

watwut•2mo ago

That sounds like a good thing, no? People able to hold jobs at their full potential is good for them, good for their families and good for people who would had to be their helpers/caregivers otherwise.

oliyoung•2mo ago

It is! It's why we advocate for a broader umbrella of dx for ASD.

There are kids who are are independant and almost functionally neurotypical, they probably don't even need "helpers", but still need assistance that they wouldn't get if they didn't get a dx under the "old" definitions

oliyoung•2mo ago

That's what I mean by "impacts of" :)

tmnvix•2mo ago

It occurred to me the other day that young people rarely get described as 'shy' anymore. 'Anxious' is more common now.

Interestingly it was common to hear "they're shy, but they'll grow out of it". I don't think the same is ever said about anxious people (and I say this as someone who was very shy/socially anxious as a teen and 'grew out of it').

I'm thankful I struggled with this at a time when medications were not easily available or readily prescribed.

xkcd-sucks•2mo ago

> 'Anxious' is more common now

Or 'having anxiety', which diminishes the subject's agency even more

watwut•2mo ago

People do not choose to have anxiety.

kelseyfrog•2mo ago

I can turn my anxiety on and off at will.

array_key_first•2mo ago

Then you do not have an anxiety disorder, you just experience the emotion of anxiety.

Similarly, you can be sad, and not have depression. The thing that makes it depression is not being able to trivially drop it. If you 'have anxiety', and can flip it on and off at will, then by the clinical definition you do not have generalized anxiety disorder. That's very nice property of the DSM.

kelseyfrog•2mo ago

Is this medical advice?

watwut•2mo ago

That comment had no advice in it, medical or otherwise. It just described definitions.

However, I would really like to know why would anyone "turned on" own anxiety if they have possibility to not turn it on. What are you gaining from that? Sounds like hitting own leg with a hammer. Even if you can do it ... why?

kelseyfrog•2mo ago

> you do not have an anxiety disorder

I've never seen a definitive refer to me specifically. It doesn't pass the sniff test.

array_key_first•2mo ago

You (second person)

kelseyfrog•2mo ago

No. (Determiner)

xkcd-sucks•2mo ago

I think the point is people embody or create anxiety, whether or not it is a choice. As an emotion the anxiety is inseparable from the person, a dead person cannot be anxious etc.

watwut•2mo ago

Not everyone "grew out of being shy". I know quite shy adults and shy old people. I also know anxious adults and old people. I kind of wish they had treatment back then, because some aspects of my life would be better if they would get therapy. Not having names for issues does not help at all. It just makes it hard to impossible to describe to others what is going on and get reasonable advice. And in the first place, it makes it hard to impossible to know it does not have to be that way.

Literally from the article:

> researchers found that the prevalence rate of neurological diseases and disorders has remained stable over time, with only a 0.2% decrease between 1990 and 2021. Over the same period, deaths from neurological diseases and disorders declined by 15%, meaning more people are living longer with these conditions. As a result, the number of years lived with disability increased by 10%.

tpmoney•2mo ago

This is in part because the term "Asperger Syndrome"[1] (which has always been related to / a subtype of autism) is no longer used and is now just under the Autism label.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome

mindcrash•2mo ago

Together with PDD/NOS (which is an entire category on its own, because you also could be diagnosed with this if you "just" have brain damage, leading to autistic like symptoms), Childhood disintegrative disorder, and Rett syndrome.

But to simplify diagnosis they swept it all up and since DSM V was released all those things are now under the ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) umbrella

oliyoung•2mo ago

You're right.

It's now ASD or "Autism Spectrum Disorder" and it much better describes the broad range of impacts the disability can have because it really is a spectrum; all the way from non-verbal to the mild, but real impact it has on social development, communication and interactions and putting a label on it means access to help

mindcrash•2mo ago

They do take a severity into account, they look at the amount of support which is required by the person which has been diagnosed.

Which according to DSM V either can be level 1 ("Requiring support"), level 2 ("Requiring substantial support") or level 3 ("Requiring very substantial support").

As explained here:

https://www.autismspeaks.org/levels-of-autism

tyleo•2mo ago

I’m talking about the linked article.

magnetowasright•2mo ago

Autism $peaks is an anti-Autistic eugenics organisation that only stopped publicly perpetuating vaccines-as-a-cause in 2017. That's just the tip of the iceberg as to problems with A$.

Info about Autism is best found, well, pretty much anywhere else as long as it's not A$.

barbazoo•2mo ago

If you're curious what type of disease/disorder they're talking about:

> The 36 medical conditions included in the systematic analysis cover the lifespan, from birth defects and neurodevelopmental disorders like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder to migraine, which can begin in teen years and often peak in a person's 30s, to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, which can occur later in life.

> Researchers found the most prevalent conditions were tension-type headache affecting 122 million Americans, migraine affecting 58 million and diabetic neuropathy affecting 17 million.

tyleo•2mo ago

When I look up tension type headache, some results say “the most common type of headache.”

So are regular old headaches being included in these results?

slowmovintarget•2mo ago

Seemingly, and those are often caused by diet and lack of exercise (or related sleep issues) like so many other disorders.

Izikiel43•2mo ago

Basically, stiff shoulder/back muscles cause the headache. Everyone using a phone/pc/laptop for a long while is liable for this.

keernan•2mo ago

>After adjusting for changes in the age composition of the U.S. population, researchers found that the prevalence rate of neurological diseases and disorders has remained stable over time, with only a 0.2% decrease between 1990 and 2021.

>Over the same period, deaths from neurological diseases and disorders declined by 15%, meaning more people are living longer with these conditions. As a result, the number of years lived with disability increased by 10%.

godsinhisheaven•2mo ago

Sounds about right, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people on Earth are on either 1. some kind of prescription drug meant to address some mental ailment or 2. Drinking alcohol/smoking/doing drugs (sometimes all 3) to address some mental ailment. There is a vanishingly small percentage of humans that do neither. Just a gut feeling, I cite nothing and have no wish to.

bikenaga•2mo ago

Original article: “US Burden of Disorders Affecting the Nervous System - From the Global Burden of Disease 2021 Study” - https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2...

stevenalowe•2mo ago

Nonsense study includes “tension headaches” lol

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One in two people in the US is affected by a neurological disease or disorder

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