People with Severe TBI at Triple the Risk of Premature Death

A study published on January 15, 2014 in the online version of JAMA Psychiatry says that people with severe TBI are at three times the risk of premature death due to depression, behavioral problems, and crime. The determination was made by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm who looked at medical records of 218,300 brain injury survivors and 150,513 siblings of brain injury survivors. Almost two million people matched by sex and age and picked from the general population formed the control group. Although the reason for spurred risk of premature death was not clear, researchers speculated it could be linked to damage to brain areas crucial for judgment, decision-making and risk-taking. The lead researcher psychiatrist Dr. Seena Fazel of Oxford said that long term monitoring and management of people with severe TBI is in order in light of these findings.