"The U.S. military has faced two epidemics over the last decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
One is suicide. The annual rate of military personnel taking their own lives has doubled to about 20 per 100,000. That translated to a record 324 suicides in the Army last year.
The other is concussion, also known as mild traumatic brain injury, or TBI. The proliferation of roadside bombs has subjected thousands of troops to brain-rattling explosions.
Several studies have suggested a link between the two epidemics — that service members who suffered concussions are at greater risk for suicide.
A paper published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry helps illuminate the nature of that relationship. Researchers found that military personnel in Iraq who suffered multiple concussions were far more prone to suicidal thoughts than those who sustained just one such injury or never had a concussion.
And by controlling for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder — well-known risk factors for suicide — the study moves closer to establishing TBI as a significant factor in suicides."
Prior info I posted regarding hormone dysfunction and TBI treated by
a A Dr. Mark L. Gordon HERE:
Well for reference if it helps I had 5 or 6 concussions in the service and one TBI with bleeding and cracks etc… and I have never even thought about ending it, sure shit sucks sometimes. I think about how messed up everybody is all the time and how it relates to my experiences and of the guys I know who have done it, tried it, thought about it, I knew them long enough to say that they had other issues before. But that’s just my experience.
I suffered numerous concussions while in the Army as an infantryman. I was received a TBI diagnosis following my last deployment in 2009. Which led to medical retirement in my case, I still have what they call residual effects due to the TBI, frequent migraines, trouble sleeping, etc. Sadly, I have had several friends commit suicide, for me I have never considered it an option. It’s a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
That doc is working with a number of current and ex SOF and last I talked to him, real success with TBI via treatments based on his hypothesis. Perhaps you are a candidate, don’t know, but maybe worth following up on.
SSRI’s can very helpful for some people, and like all drugs, helpful for some, less so for others, and (potentially) dangerous to a small subset of users.
I’d agree, generally over prescribed but they do have legit clinical benefits for those who need them and respond well to them.
Sorry Will never saw this pop back up. I do have long term effects, the injury happened in 2003. My sense of smell is at about 15%. I cant say or have not tried to link the injury to any other issues. I took part in a VA study with a psychiatrist of specialized in neurological disorders, the results have not been made public to my knowledge.
FWIW, concussion-related TBI is what the NFL is currently being sued over by the players/former players/estates of players. A number of higher profile former NFL players have suicided in recent years.
I wonder if there is a corresponding increase in suicide amongst boxers?
It clearly needs more study before any true cause and effect can be established, but I don’t think it should be a long stretch to conclude multiple impact trauma to the brain may have larger and longer lasting effects than once believed.
I have some concerns that the study is too narrowly focused. The higher incidence of suicide attempts by personnel with previous TBI, may be an indicator that they went into harm’s way more often than others who have not contemplated suicide. More time in a high stress environment would cause a greater likelihood of post service issues.
I believe that you cannot place a lot of weight on one factor when analyzing why a portion of military and prior service personnel attempt suicide.
True comments. I think like many complex issues of human psychology, placing a single cause would be a grave mistake.
However, I think it may seen as a possible factor, in a cluster of common factors, that may help clue docs, researchers, etc into “at risk” populations.
Also, per link above, there may be a direct association to TBI and hormonal dysfunction, which (if correct) will put people at higher risk for depression, etc if not addressed and treated.
Thanks Will. This is an issue that needs to be discussed openly and everything needs to be taken into consideration.
The bottom line is helping out returning Veterans and I hope the medical personnel involved in studying the issue come up with some viable treatment options.
Not taking away from the original point, but I don’t see a particularly strong correlation as a causal observer. Granted, TBIs certainly don’t help anyone, but I think we are so desperate to find and fix the suicide problem that we are willing to consider even the smallest statistical correlations. I’m not saying that is the case here, but anecdotally, I’m still largely of the mind that the causal factors here are still pretty basic.
Some folks don’t handle life stressors as well, or just don’t measure up on-the-job. Others lose hope went they seem to be in a constant cycle of deployment after deployment with no end in sight, or get passed-over for a promotion they felt should have been theirs. Most struggle with the very same kinds of problems that cause their civilian counterparts to follow much the same path: serious relationship difficulties.
When you’re forced to suspend your normal life for 15 months at a time, and you spend so much time away in such a volatile environment, it can prove positively overwhelming when you learn that things are not at all well at home – or worse, that your significant other has taken up with someone else. The result is a fairly predictable sense of hopelessness, and my sense is that this is what leads so many to give up and take their own lives. Sadly, I’ve seen it happen more than once.
Again, I’m not suggesting that injuries play no role; merely that we usually don’t need to look quite that deep in order to glean insight into the majority of these cases.