OBJECTIVES: Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients experience motor and non-motor complications resulting in a poor quality of life and progressive disability. This work reviews recent studies that assessed direct and indirect economic consequences of PD in the US including healthcare resource utilization, productivity loss and caregiver’s burden.

METHODS: A targeted literature search of English-language publications in the US from the last 10 years (January 2009 through December 2018) was performed in PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library databases. Relevant literature was also selected from Google hand searching.

RESULTS: In total, 15 studies were included for this review. Patients <60 years of age were found to have a lower mean direct cost than patients >60 years annually, $4,072 and $15, 404, respectively. Also, mean direct cost for patients with advanced PD was $26,467. On an average, 21.3% patients had at least 1 hospitalization with length of stay ranging from 1-16 days. Mean inpatient and outpatient cost ranged from $11,933-$33,586 and $11,404-$21,801, respectively. Patients’ average health expenditure for prescription drugs ranged from $5151-$5670. Mean indirect cost for PD patients was $3,311, whereas, indirect cost for caregiver’s ranged from $2054-$2464 (for years 1-3).

CONCLUSIONS: Direct costs for PD increased with age and disease progression. The economic burden of PD is projected to grow over the next few decades as the size of the ageing population continues to grow. This review highlights an urgent need to find more cost effective therapies for the management of PD.