Originally published in the American Medical Association's newsletter, AMA Morning Rounds®
"Adults over 50 who experience TBI may have higher risk of dementia"
Reuters (1/31, Weinstock) reports that according to a study published online Jan. 30 in PLoS One, the first year following a traumatic brain injury increases the risk of developing dementia by “four- to six-fold.” Researchers arrived at that finding after examining medical records from “3,329,360 men and women in Sweden over age 50 looking for diagnoses of dementia and any history of TBI.” Patrick Frost Bellgowan of the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke said, “I think this study is one of the strongest pieces of evidence to date that this relationship exists.” He added, “The study’s strength is its size and quality of the data.”