Canadian health insurance database reveals grim link between head injuries and taking your own life
There has long been a link between brain injuries and suicide – and now, new research is suggesting that the rate of suicide leaps after concussions.
A team of Canadian researchers studied a health insurance database containing 235,000 people and discovered the long-term chances of committing suicide actually increases three-fold when adults suffer concussions.
Their work, which was printed in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, focuses on ordinary people who were hospitalized with head injuries – whether that was for days or weeks. They were then matched with death certificates that listed suicide as the official cause during a 20-year period.
Its discovery was that there was a suicide rate of 31 per 100,000 among the patients that had suffered the head injuries: representing an average that is three times the norm for the population. Each additional concussion also increased the risk of suicide: while the mean time between mild concussions and suicides stands at 5.7 years.
According to the study, those who had a lower socioeconomic status were a higher risk; while patients who suffered concussions on a weekend were four times more likely to kill themselves than a general member of the public.
Donald Redelmeier, one of the study’s leaders, a professor and physician, commented that the extent of the increased risk genuinely surprised him.
In the publication he is quoted as saying: “I always had my doubts about whether individuals fully recover from concussions, but I never thought I’d find a three-fold increase in risk.”
Though the study took place in Canada, Redelmeier commented that studies in the US also show similar links. He did, however, comment that the study was limited in its data as it only recorded the link between those that actually got medical treatment for their injury: many concussion sufferers do not.
A team of Canadian researchers studied a health insurance database containing 235,000 people and discovered the long-term chances of committing suicide actually increases three-fold when adults suffer concussions.
Their work, which was printed in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, focuses on ordinary people who were hospitalized with head injuries – whether that was for days or weeks. They were then matched with death certificates that listed suicide as the official cause during a 20-year period.
Its discovery was that there was a suicide rate of 31 per 100,000 among the patients that had suffered the head injuries: representing an average that is three times the norm for the population. Each additional concussion also increased the risk of suicide: while the mean time between mild concussions and suicides stands at 5.7 years.
According to the study, those who had a lower socioeconomic status were a higher risk; while patients who suffered concussions on a weekend were four times more likely to kill themselves than a general member of the public.
Donald Redelmeier, one of the study’s leaders, a professor and physician, commented that the extent of the increased risk genuinely surprised him.
In the publication he is quoted as saying: “I always had my doubts about whether individuals fully recover from concussions, but I never thought I’d find a three-fold increase in risk.”
Though the study took place in Canada, Redelmeier commented that studies in the US also show similar links. He did, however, comment that the study was limited in its data as it only recorded the link between those that actually got medical treatment for their injury: many concussion sufferers do not.
