Concussions and other traumatic brain injuries may increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease earlier in life, according to a study from UT Southwestern’s Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute.
The research – the first to use autopsy-confirmed cases of Alzheimer’s disease to examine the long-term effects of head injuries – supports a correlation that could only be speculated about in previous studies, which lacked definitive diagnostic methods.
An analysis of more than 2,100 cases found that people who sustained traumatic brain injury (TBI) with loss of consciousness greater than five minutes were diagnosed with dementia on average 2 1/2 years earlier than those who had not experienced TBI.
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