Dementia Risk After Traumatic Brain Injury vs Nonbrain Trauma

Abstract

There is controversy regarding the causal link between a single traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the risk of developing dementia. Several studies and meta-analyses^1-5 have not found an association between TBI and risk of dementia. Quiz Ref ID Many previous studies have had notable limitations, including recall bias due to self-reported diagnoses,^6-10 possible reverse causality¹¹ if patients with dementia have increased risk of TBI, possible confusion with postconcussive syndrome due to transient post-TBI cognitive symptoms,^12,13 or possible confounding if patients with TBI are compared with healthy controls, who may differ in many ways from patients prone to TBI.¹³ Even among studies^2,14 that report a positive association between TBI and dementia, marked variability exists in the magnitude of reported risk, which may be due to differences in TBI severity, age of patients, and follow-up period (with some being as short as 2 years) among studies.