The American journal of psychiatry
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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is increasingly recognized as a risk factor for deleterious mental health and functional outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the strength and specificity of the association between deployment-acquired TBI and subsequent posttraumatic stress and related disorders among U.S. Army personnel. ⋯ The findings highlight the importance of surveillance efforts to identify soldiers who have sustained TBIs and are therefore at risk for an array of postdeployment adverse mental health outcomes, including but not limited to PTSD. The mechanism(s) accounting for these associations need to be elucidated to inform development of effective preventive and early intervention programs.
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The purpose of this study was to clarify the causes of the smoking-schizophrenia association. ⋯ Smoking prospectively predicts risk for schizophrenia. This association does not arise from smoking onset during a schizophrenic prodrome and demonstrates a clear dose-response relationship. While little of this association is explained by epidemiological confounders, a portion arises from common familial/genetic risk factors. However, in full siblings and especially monozygotic twins discordant for smoking, risk for nonaffective psychosis is appreciably higher in the smoking member. These results can help in evaluating the plausibility of various etiological hypotheses for the smoking-schizophrenia association.