Today, The BMJ is launching a special collection of articles on brain health - what it is, why it is important, and how we can better prevent and treat brain disorders to improve health across the world, especially as populations become older.
The articles, written by leading international experts, will outline the definition of brain health, analyse the impact of major neurological disorders on brain health, and discuss how these disorders might be treated and prevented.
The collection will be launched at a special event in Beijing on 10 October 2020 at the Chinese Stroke Association (CSA) annual conference.
With the number of people aged 60 years and over worldwide expected to grow to 2 billion by 2050, the burden of brain dysfunction and neurological diseases and demand for medical resources is set to dramatically increase.
Over the coming decades, governments will face increasing demand for treatment, rehabilitation and support services for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and other dementias, schizophrenia and depression.
In a leading article, Professor Yongjun Wang at the Beijing Tiantan Hospital and colleagues say "maintaining a healthy brain across the lifespan is the uppermost goal of pursuing health and longevity" and therefore, "it is pivotal to understand what brain health is and why it is important."
They explain that several large-scale brain health initiatives have been launched in the past seven years in many countries to promote the development of neuroscience, brain simulation and brain protection.
But they warn that these initiatives face challenges due to different research directions of brain projects in different countries.
As such, they call for urgent action to promote global collaboration on brain health research.
Dr Kamran Abbasi, Executive Editor at The BMJ, says: "The brain is our most complex organ but remains the one we need to learn most about. This special collection of articles written for The BMJ by leading international experts focuses on the areas of greatest promise both in terms of science and clinical impact. The ultimate aim is to help improve the brain health of people globally, and this special collection explains how that ambition can become a reality through recent developments and international collaboration."
Read the full collection here: https://www.bmj.com/brain-health
