Concussions Can Lead to Schizophrenia and Other Mental Illnesses
I was in a car accident. Seven cars rear-ended into my mom’s car. My mom’s car was hardly damaged and everyone was fine, except for me. I ended up with post-concussive syndrome. The doctors prepared me well for the physical aspects of my recovery, but they failed to prepare me for what would change my life. Over the next year I would struggle through major depressive disorder, and depersonalization-derealization disorder. Fortunately for us, I am a naturally curious girl and did some research into the questions I had about the changes my body was going through. Below is a list of some common mental illnesses that can arise from concussions.
However, before we get to the list, let me explain what concussions and mental health have to do with each other.
One definition of concussion is: “The acute psychological experience of trauma incurred through head impact, acceleration, or both: an alteration or limited loss of consciousness” (Parker, 1, 2012). Thus, concussions and the processes of mental health occur in the same place: the head. More specifically, ScienceNordic says that concussions “can affect the neurotransmitters that the brain uses to communicate between various parts of the nervous system, and this disrupted balance is associated with the development of mental disorders” (Hansen, 2014). Or, as my doctor Raymond Smith simply said, concussions deal with an injury to the brain and mental health is dependent on the brain. Now that we are all on the same page, let’s check out some of the more common mental illnesses that can arise from concussions.
- Depression
Danish scientists did a national register study on all Danes who lived between 1977-2000 (Hansen, 2014). According to the census, that was 1.4 million people at that time. Of the 1.4 million people, 113,906 of them were admitted to the hospital with brain injuries and followed up with the scientists in 2010 (Hansen, 2014). Being careful to adjust for family history of depression and correlations of depression with other injuries, 59% of the subjects had developed depression. What about sports stars, specifically? Well, another study was conducted that looked specifically at former collegiate athletes, mental health, and concussions (Kerr et al., 2014). An online questionnaire was sent out to Division 1 university players between 1987 and 2012. The results showed that those who had reported concussions had a 2.4 times greater of a chance of developing depression than those without concussions (Kerr et al., 2014).
- Comorbid Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
All of those fancy words simply mean that PTSD occurs in a patient along with another psychiatric disorder (National Center for PTSD, 2017). Some symptoms of comorbid PTSD are depersonalization and derealization, two phenomena which I have personally experienced. (Whether or not the phenomena occurred because of my concussion has yet to be determined. However, it is curious that I experienced both of these phenomena shortly after the accident.)
- Schizophrenia
According to the Danish study described above, 65% of the 113,906 participants developed schizophrenia. However, there is no definite explanation for the correlation between this disorder or depression. Remember, correlation does not equal causation.
Works Cited
Hansen, Malene. (2014). Head Injury Can Cause Mental Illness. Retrieved from http://sciencenordic.com/head-injury-can-cause-mental-illness.PTSD. N. (2016).
Kerr, Zachary Y, Evenson, Kelly R, Rosamond, Wayne D, Mihalik, Jason P, Guskiewicz, Kevin M, Marshall, Steven W. (2014). Association between concussion and mental health in former collegiate athletes. Injury Epidemiology. Retrieved from http://injepijournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40621-014-0028-x.ypes of
PTSD. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 23, 2017. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/lib/types-of-ptsd/.
Rolland, Parker S. (2012).Concussive Brain Trauma: Neurobehavioral Imparment and Maladaptation. Florida: CRC Press.
If you suffer a head trauma, your risk of developing certain mental disorders increases significantly – in some cases by more than 400 percent, new study reveals.
Danish scientists have studied the link between head traumas such as concussion and skull fracture and the subsequent risk of developing mental disorders.
They found that head injuries can increase the risk of developing certain mental disorders by up to 439 percent.
“I am quite surprised by our findings. I had expected to see a correlation, but it is stronger than I had expected,” says Sonja Orlovska, MD, of the Psychiatric Centre Copenhagen.
She is the lead author of the new study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Largest study to date
This is the largest study of its kind. It is a national register study based on all Danes born between 1977 and 2000 – totalling 1.4 million people – who were followed up to 2010.
In this period, 113,906 of them had been admitted to hospital with a head injury. Four percent of these were subsequently diagnosed with a mental disorder.
The researchers looked at the following disorders: depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and so-called organic mental disorders (a form of decreased mental function due to a medical or physical disease, rather than a psychiatric illness).
By comparing the injured people’s risk of developing the disorders with the rest of the study population, they found that those with head injuries were:
• 65 percent more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia.
• 59 percent more likely to develop a depression.
• 28 percent more likely to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
• 439 percent more likely to suffer from organic mental disorders.
The greatest risk of developing a mental disorder is in the first year after suffering head trauma, but even after 15 years there was a significantly increased risk.
During July of 2007 I was involved in a motorcycle accident that left me with five broken ribs, a broken spine, broken fingers, a torn spleen, bleeding internally, bruised lung, a level two concussion, head trauma and severe abrasions. After hospitalization and spinal surgery I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and borderline personality disorder. I lost my life, my career, including all attempts of being happily married with a family and I wouldn’t wish this dysfunction on my worst enemy. Throughout my adult life I spent time in fifteen different psychiatric wards due to my mental illness. After years of psychiatric and cognitive therapy including a regime of medication including being very active in my psychiatric rehabilitation I’m in a better place of what is considered mental health recovery.
Thomas, I actually came across that same article you referred to in your first comment when researching for this article. The brain is so incredibly fragile and complex it still amazes me. Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m thrilled to hear you’re in a better place mentally than you were before.
I’ve experienced a rather difficult concussion myself during my senior year of college. Nevermind the difficulties of physical recovery throughout most of the school year–becoming mentally healthy again was probably the biggest struggle for me. In fact, there are remnants of those illnesses today a few years later, so I’m still healing myself. I got lucky in that I received life changing medication on the first try. After the concussion, I started experiencing episodes of depersonalization/derealization and as soon as my medication was changed those episodes left. However, I’m unlucky in that I still self-harm because, sadly, self-harming is incredibly addictive due to what I call it’s “fast high of relief.” I picked up that behavior because of the depersonalization/derealization episodes in order to “wake myself up.” I believe I wrote an article on this topic before for this site, so if you should look it up if you’re curious.
Anyway….this is just a long winded way of saying that I can relate to you, Thomas. Mental illnesses due to physical injury are extremely difficult to overcome–and that’s an understatement. The fact we’re both in better places proves that while we’ve faced tough situations, we’re tougher!! I wish you the best with your recovery, Thomas.
Stay strong,
Lady.Raye (aka Amanda LaClaire; aka the girl who forgot her login information)