How high school sports and combat may lead to higher rate of PTSD, suicide among soldiers… Excerpt: Bryan studied active-duty soldiers in Iraq in 2009, gathering data about service members’ suicidal thoughts after they returned to base with traumatic brain injuries, one of the more common injuries in these recent wars. It’s being published in the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry today. He found that one in five patients — nearly 22 percent — who experienced more than one TBI in their lifetime reported thoughts or preoccupation with suicide, compared to 6 percent of patients with only one TBI. Those with no history of TBI reported no suicidal thoughts. The study found that those with multiple TBIs often first got hurt before they joined up. “A lot of these guys are coming in with histories of head injuries, and a lot of times they’re sports related,” he said. “They played sports in high school, got knocked out a couple of times, and (later) joined the military.” Some of these military members reported having had as many as six head injuries before they entered the service, he said. And he said the data also shows an estimated 20 percent of service members sustained concussions during basic training. The implication, Bryan said, is that these earlier injuries can create a “preexisting vulnerability that gets activated” by another head injury sustained in combat. Bryan screened these military members when they came back from missions having sustained some kind of head trauma, usually in an IED attack. Some service members sustained as many as 15 traumatic brain injuries while deployed, according to his research. Those with multiple TBIs were also at higher risk for PTSD and depression, the study found… pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/a-new-link-between-traumatic-brain-injury-and-suicide/
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 23:41:11 +0000
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