The complexity of mental health often means that big research findings come in a series of small packages. This week, a small but significant piece of the puzzle connecting traumatic brain injury (TBI) to suicide became clearer, thanks to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs team in Colorado. While many studies examining TBI and suicide have focused on the direct link between the two, the new study was based on a dataset of health information from more than 800,000 U.S. Army veterans, and looked at later mental-health diagnoses that could help explain an indirect link. The researchers mapped out timelines from the end of deployment to the present day, or until the end of life for those veterans who passed away early. Then, they looked at what happened after soldiers were diagnosed with 14 different mental health conditions, including anxiety, substance use disorders, and mood disorders. The researchers found clear evidence that TBI not only increases the likelihood of future mental health disorders, but also makes them worse when they do occur, creating a dangerous compounding effect that can prove deadly. It’s more reason than ever, the lead author told me, to treat people as whole people and whole minds, rather than treating each condition individually. |
