While many forms of mental and behavioral disorders can occur late in life, they are not an inevitable part of the aging process, and continued research holds the promise of improving the mental health and quality of life for older Americans. Current and projected economic costs of mental disorders alone are staggering. In addition, there are other expenses associated with caring for an Alzheimer's disease patient including social support, care giving, and often nursing home care. Depression is another example of a common problem among older persons. Of the approximately 32 million Americans who have attained age 65, about five million suffer from depression, resulting in increased disability, general health care service use and costs, and increased risk of suicide.
Older adults have the highest rate of suicide rate compared to any other age group.
The enormous and widely underestimated costs of late life mental illnesses justifies major new investments. The personal and societal costs of mental illness and addictive disorders are high, but advances in research and treatment will help save lives, strengthen families, and save taxpayer dollars. While the funding increases supported by this Subcommittee in recent years have been essential first steps to a better future, a serious and sustained investment in research is necessary to allow continuous progress on the many research advances we made to date. In addition, we are pleased that President Bush and HHS Secretary Thompson have expressed support for increased funding for NIH in the coming year. Commendable as recent funding increases for NIH and NIMH have been, AAGP would like to call the Subcommittee's attention to the fact that these increases have not always translated into comparable increases in funding for extramural research on mental health of the elderly.