Traumatic brain injury can lead to Schumacher's early death: Research suggests

Brain experts said most health services fail to make the link between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and long-term mental consequences, Newsmax Health reports.

While Schumacher, a wealthy and famous former motor-racing driver well supported by family, friends and doctors, is in a far better position that most with TBI, he will nevertheless still have a changed brain and will need to readjust and cope.

"If Schumacher survives he will not be Schumacher." said Richard Greenwood, a consultant neurologist at London's Homerton Hospital and at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.

Greenwood was speaking at a briefing for reporters on the results of a study into the long-term effects of traumatic brain injuries caused by blows to the head.

The study, published on Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, found that survivors of TBIs are three times more likely to die prematurely than the general population, often from suicide or fatal accidents.

Seena Fazel of Oxford University's Department of Psychiatry, who led the study, said the exact reasons for the increased risk of premature death - which in this study was defined as dying before the age of 56 - are not clear. But he said they may be linked to damage to parts of the brain responsible for judgment, decision-making and risk-taking.

They are also at increased risk of developing psychiatric illnesses such as depression and anxiety, which can lead to patients having difficulties dealing with new situations and organizing their lives.

For their Study, Fazel and fellow researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm examined Swedish medical records going back 41 years covering 218,300 TBI survivors, 150,513 siblings of TBI survivors and more than two million controls matched by sex and age from the general population.

"We found that people who survive six months after TBI remain three times more likely to die prematurely than the control population and 2.6 times more likely to die than unaffected siblings," Fazel said.

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