Childhood head injuries possible to link mental illness and low life chances read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/742-childhood-head-injuries-possible-to-link-mental-illness-and-low-life-chances

According to new study, childhood head injuries are associated with an increased risk of subsequent mental illness, poor school attainment and premature death.

A research team from University of Oxford analyzed data in Sweden, people born in between 1973 and 1985 to examine the long-term impact of having a traumatic brain injury before the age of 25.

After analyzing data, researchers found that childhood brain injuries increased the chances. Serious brain injuries and repeated brain injuries made them even more likely.

The team compared people who had experienced brain injury to unaffected people in their same age group, and also to their brothers and sisters who had not been injured.

Professor Seena Fazel from Oxford University and lead author of the study, said, comparing results within families allows for other factors in a person's care could have a significance on their later life. The differences seen between injured and uninjured siblings, indicating that the effect of head injury is independent of other factors.

People who had experienced brain injury during childhood were 80% receive disability benefits, and 70% die before the age of 41, and 60% more likely to have done poorly at school or be in the receipt of welfare benefits.

People who had experienced repeated mild, moderate or severe brain injury were over two-and-a-half times more likely to receive disability benefits than contemporaries who had experienced a single episode injury.

The study indicates far-reaching and long-term consequences of head injury. However, we cannot prevent every injury. Long term follows up could identify negative effects so that early intervention can prevent a drift into low attainment, unemployment and mental illness.