Brain injury and neurologic sequelae: A cohort study of dementia, parkinsonism, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Abstract
We reviewed the medical records of 821 Olmsted County residents who had suffered head trauma with presumed brain injury between 1935 and 1974 and were more than 40 years old at the time of their last medical assessment. These patients were followed over 15,000 person-years for dementia and other degenerative neurologic diseases. The standardized morbidity ratio (SMR) for dementia was 1.06, and the SMR for dementia of the Alzheimer type was 1.00. These values are not significantly elevated and are inconsistent with studies that suggest that head trauma is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. In addition, the SMRs for parkinsonism (1.04), Parkinson's disease (0.94), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (1.05) were not significantly elevated, providing no evidence that head trauma is a risk factor for these disorders. However, these latter results are based on smaller total case numbers.
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Two studies to date have examined head injury and ALS prospectively.
“Two studies to date have examined head injury and ALS prospectively.”
From Severe head injury and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (2013) · cites this paper as [18]
Williams et al. did not find an association between concussion or skull fracture and ALS risk.
“Similarly, Williams et al. did not find an association between concussion or skull fracture and ALS risk [69].”
From Head Injury and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Population-Based Study from the National ALS Registry (2025) · cites this paper as [69]
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- Authors
- Williams, D. B., Annegers, J. F., Kokmen, E., O'Brien, P. C., & Kurland, L. T.
- Affiliations
- Department of Health Sciences Research (Drs. Williams, O'Brien, and Kurland), Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN; Division of Epidemiology (Dr. Annegers), University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX; and Department of Neurology (Dr. Kokmen), Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.
- Venue
- Neurology
- Published
- 1991-10
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1554-1554
- ISSN
- 0028-3878
- 1526-632X
- Cited by
- 112
- References
- 0
- Language
- en
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