Small injuries to the brain increase the risk of dementia

Is there a connection between dementia and brain injury?

Researchers now found that there is a link between brain injury and the later onset of dementia. A so-called craniocerebral trauma increases the risk for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, according to the medical experts by 24 percent.

Seattle University's University of Washington School of Medicine's recent study found that traumatic brain injury increases the risk of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. The experts published the results of their study in the English-language journal "The Lancet Psychiatry".

Falls and other injuries can lead to a so-called traumatic brain injury. Such an injury increases the likelihood of developing dementia later in life. (Image: Monika Wisniewska / fotolia.com)

Data from about three million people were evaluated

For their study, the physicians analyzed the data of just under three million people. Researchers found that traumatic brain injury increases the risk of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia by 24 percent over a 36-year period. In other words, 5.3 percent of participants with dementia had suffered traumatic brain injury, compared with 4.7 percent of subjects with dementia who had no such history.

Even weak head injuries increase the risk

Even a relatively minor head injury caused by a concussion resulted in a 17 percent increase in risk, the researchers explain. However, the probability of developing Alzheimer's after a brain injury is relatively low, the experts add.

Increased risk persists for years

People with a history of traumatic brain injury, including patients with less severe injuries, were at an increased risk of developing dementia decades later, said study car Professor Jesse Fann of the University of Washington School of Medicine. However, it is important to emphasize that although the relative risk of dementia after traumatic brain injury is increased, the absolute increase in risk is small, the expert adds.

Study examined the Danish population

For their examination, the physicians identified all diagnoses of participants with traumatic brain injury from the health records of a Danish population of 2.8 million people between the year 1977 and the year 2013. Over a period of 36 years, 132,093 people suffered at least one cranial brain -Trauma. However, most cases were considered mild. Between 1999 and 2013, dementia was diagnosed in 4.5 percent of the study population aged 50+, say the researchers.

Football increases the risk of developing dementia?

For some time now, experts have been discussing whether footballers are at an increased risk of developing dementia. This would be related to any head injuries suffered. Previous studies on the links between brain injury and dementia have led to contradictory results, say the authors of the study. Small sample sizes and short follow-up periods were two of the factors that made earlier findings unreliable, the researchers add.

Repeated brain injuries increase the risk massively

The current study also looked at other influences on the risk of developing dementia, including diabetes, heart disease, depression and substance abuse. Researchers identified a cumulative effect whereby the risk of developing dementia increased with repeated episodes of brain injury. For people who had suffered five or more such injuries, the risk was almost three times increased, explain the doctors.

Prevention needs to be improved

The association of various causes for traumatic brain injury leads to changes over time, which require greater political attention, because a possible prevention could prevent the effects, say the experts. Because even a single injury, which leads to a traumatic brain injury, increases the likelihood of suffering from dementia by more than a third. (As)