Canadian study finds major traumatic injury increases risk of mental-health diagnoses, suicide

Patients seriously injured in car accidents, violence and falls are at a greater risk of developing a mental illness or dying by suicide, according to a new study that patients must better mental-health support.

The study, published on Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that patients were 40 percent more likely to be hospitalized with a mental-health diagnosis, such as depression, anxiety or alcohol-abuse disorder, after major trauma than they were. before being injured.

The rate of suicide among post-trauma patients was also significantly higher, at 70 suicides per 100,000 people per year, compared with 11.5 suicides per 100,000 among the general population.

"Anyone involved in the management of these patients," says lead author Christopher Evans, director of trauma at the Kingston Health Sciences Center.

As an emergency physician, Dr. Evans says he has carved for trauma patients who have made remarkable physical recoveries, but struggled with depression, anxiety and self-harm in the years and years afterward. While hospitals and health-care services generally offer mental-health services to trauma patients, he says, they are not always provided in a co-ordinated, systematic way.

"There's a need for offering [mental-health] supports to every patient so that it becomes standard practice, "he says.

He and his team analyzed 1939 patients treated for major trauma in Ontario, between 2005 and 2010. The most common type of injury was blunt trauma, and the causes of injuries, accidents, unintentional falls, assault and exposure to smoke or fire.

The researchers looked at how many patients were admitted to hospital for a mental-health diagnosis in the five years prior to their traumatic injury, compared with five years post-injury. They found hospital admissions, especially for alcohol abuse, and the use of major depressive disorders, were higher during the post-injury period.

The study did not examine the reasons for the increase. However, Dr. Evans suggests there may be multiple factors involved. It is possible that they may be diagnosed until they come into contact with trauma, he says. Aim, he explains, people who have experienced and manage their mental health, and they can lose their ability to function independently, which can affect their mental health.

The latest findings have been studied by the University of Manitoba in the past. The authors of that study noted that advances in medical and other care are more important than the results of their injuries, including pain and disability. and financial issues.

Sarvesh Logsetty, one of the authors of the 2014 study, says that they need more attention to patients' needs beyond treating their physical injuries.

"Okay, great, we're saving your life," says Dr. Logsetty, director of the Manitoba Firefighters Burn Unit at the Health Sciences Center in Winnipeg and professor of surgery and psychiatry at the University of Manitoba. "We need to support people beyond their lives and their lives."