A single concussion triples the long-term risk of suicide

[Plazma Inferno!]

New research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows that even mild concussions sustained in ordinary community settings might be more detrimental than anyone anticipated. The long-term risk of suicide increases threefold in adults if they have experienced even one concussion. That risk increases by a third if the concussion is sustained on a weekend instead of a weekday, suggesting that recreational concussions are riskier long-term than those sustained on the job.
The typical patient is a middle-aged adult, not an elite athlete, and the usual circumstances for acquiring a concussion are not while playing football; it is when driving in traffic and getting into a crash, when missing a step and falling down a staircase, when getting overly ambitious about home repairs—the everyday activities of life.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/a...on-may-triple-the-long-term-risk-of-suicide1/

 

[iceaura]

I doubt they allowed enough for the likelihood that those prone to suicide would be more likely to concuss in daily life - I'm pretty sure the suicide prone (male, anyway) are also car accident prone, binge drinking prone, slower to react to sudden threat, sleep disturbed, distracted by internal monologues, and so forth. The weekend differential reported would fit that - job injury is probably not as influenced by depression.

Regardless, it's a key warning sign.

 

[Edont Knoff]

I recently read about a study with mice, which researched how important rest is after a concussion. It seems the importance of rest was underestimated so far, but that a one-week rest can mend the effects of a concussion.

If that can be applied to humans too, people need to take a larger break from any activities after a concussion, the two days that are usually used as rule of thumb might not be enough, the brain needs longer to reconstruct the nerve couplings; also, repeteaed concussions shortly after the first one dameg the brain very much, causing inflammations which do further damage.

Not the article that I've read, but likely about the same study:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mouse-study-offers-clues-brains-response-concussions

Tests a day after the impact showed that about 13 percent of dendritic spines, docking sites that help connect brain cells, had vanished in a particular part of the brain. Three days after the injury, these missing connections reappeared, even surpassing the original number of connections.

When mice were given a week off between injuries, their brains once again showed signs of brain cell connection loss and recovery, suggesting that time between injuries resets the brain in a way that lets it handle another hit.