Study: TBI in Veterans May Increase Risk of Dementia

Older veterans who have experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI) are 60 percent more likely to later develop dementia than veterans without TBI, according to a study recently published online in Neurology. The study also found that veterans with a history of TBI developed dementia about two years earlier than those without TBI who had developed dementia. The study involved 188,784 veterans with an average age of 68 at the start of the study. All were free of dementia at the start of the study and had at least one visit to a Veterans Affairs health-care facility at the start of the study and again an average of seven years later. A total of 1,229 of the veterans had a TBI diagnosis. During the follow-up period, 16 percent of veterans with TBI developed dementia. After adjusting for other factors that could affect the risk of dementia, researchers determined that veterans with TBI were 60 percent more likely to develop dementia than those without TBI. The researchers also found that the risk of dementia was higher in veterans with TBI who also had depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or cerebrovascular disease than in those with either TBI or these other conditions alone. To learn more about the study, click here.