Why Head Injuries Can Cause Depression & 10 Ways To Recover From A TBI

Have you ever bumped your head and had your "bell rung"? Have you ever gotten whiplash from a car accident? Or have you ever taken a tumble and blacked out temporarily? If you're like most people who experience these incidents, you probably shook it off and went on with your life. In some cases, however, these seemingly minor head injuries can lead to long-term problems, including depression.

The problem is, most people don't make the connection between depressive symptoms and an incident that occurred months, years, or even decades earlier. If you don't heal the underlying brain injury, you may not get the relief you want from standard depression treatments.

Here's an introduction to the link between concussions and depression, as well as 10 tips to help you recover from a brain injury and start feeling like yourself again.

Our brain-imaging work at Amen Clinics shows us that mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a major cause of psychiatric issues, such as depression, but most people are unaware of this.

In fact, brain SPECT scans on our patients show that approximately 40 percent of them have experienced a prior head injury. We usually have to ask them multiple times before they remember a significant event.

I had one patient who repeatedly said he had never experienced a head injury. After being asked for the fifth time, he had one of those light-bulb moments. All of a sudden, he remembered falling out of a second-story window when he was 5 years old.

Other patients have forgotten flying through the windshield after a car accident, tumbling out of the bed of a truck, or blacking out after falling off the top bunk bed. Still, others remember a past injury but think it was too inconsequential to mention.

The majority of patients have no idea that their depression, anxiety, or lack of focus may be partly due to an incident in their past. Unfortunately, very few mental health professionals recognize this link, either, because most psychiatrists never look at the brain.

Some of the physical effects on the brain from a mild TBI or concussion include inflammation, reduced blood flow, damage to nerve cell connections, broken blood vessels, bleeding, and bruising.

In addition, minor head injuries can often damage the pituitary gland1, which is involved in hormone regulation. This can lead to major hormonal imbalances that can cause depressive symptoms or other mental health problems.

Major depressive disorder is the most common psychiatric disorder following a traumatic brain injury, according to a systematic review2 in the Journal of Neurotrauma. The risk for developing clinical depression after a TBI increases as time passes.

Within the first year after an injury, 33 to 42 percent of individuals will become depressed. Within the first seven years post-concussion, that number jumps to 61 percent. This spike in depression isn't restricted to people who sustain a severe or moderate TBI. In fact, the risk for the mood disorder is also found in those who mild TBIs.

People with a history of a mild head injury are over three times as likely to have depression compared with individuals who have not experienced head trauma, based on findings in a 2020 meta-analysis3 in Frontiers in Neurology.

The increased risk for depression persists for decades after a head injury, and it doesn't matter how old you were when the injury happened.

This is concerning considering there are approximately 2 million ER visits each year for TBIs in the U.S. It's likely there are millions more that go undetected and undiagnosed. And these numbers are rising.

Among the general population, concussion diagnoses rose 43 percent from 2010 to 2015, according to medical claims data from Blue Cross Blue Shield. During that same time period, concussion diagnoses among those aged 10 to 19 jumped an alarming 71 percent.

Are you one of these statistics? If so and you're struggling with depression, it's critical to investigate if brain damage is contributing to your symptoms. The only way to know if a head injury is to blame is to look at the brain with functional brain imaging such as SPECT.

Healing damage to the brain after an injury is critical for preventing or overcoming post-concussion depression. First and foremost, if you sustain a head injury, seek medical help immediately. To promote general healing and better brain health, follow these strategies:

In addition to everyday lifestyle changes, certain therapeutic treatments can be beneficial after a concussion or mild TBI. Here are two science-backed types of therapy I often recommend to my patients.

Healing your brain with lifestyle modifications and therapeutic options can be very beneficial in overcoming depression related to a head injury. If you're struggling with depression that isn't responding to standard treatment, it may be time to investigate if a hidden head injury might be contributing to your symptoms.