People who suffer concussion have a three times higher risk of attempting suicide. The risk further increases if they sustain the injury on weekend, according to a new study.
Canadian scientists looked at 235,110 patients over a 20-year period (1992 to 2012) and found that those who had suffered a concussion were more likely to commit suicide than those who had not.
The study also compared suicides occurring on weekdays vs. suicides occurring on weekends. Among those who had suffered concussions, the number of suicides occurring on weekdays was three times the norm; the number of suicides occurring on weekends was four times the norm.
The mean amount of time between concussion and suicide in these individuals was 5.7 years.
It’s worth noting that this study was done in Canada, which has a different rate of suicide than that of the United States. Also, during the follow up there were only 667 suicides in total — larger numbers will be needed in order to draw a more solid conclusion.
Agencies/Canadajournal
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