Suicide ideation and behaviors after traumatic brain injury (TBI) pose a dire, albeit infrequent, clinical emergency. The literature on suicide after TBI is sparse, but that on suicide in the general population may have limited applicability. Persons with TBI frequently experience impairments and disabilities that introduce additional complexities to the management of suicidality in this population. The current study examines in detail the premorbid psychosocial variables, injury details, and posttraumatic sequelae of eight completed suicides after TBI. The eight suicides were among 50 deaths occurring in 896 admissions to a regional brain injury rehabilitation service over a period of 18 years. The most notable feature of the group was the presence of psychiatric and emotional symptomatology in most cases, superimposed on a range of neuropsychological impairments. This combination imposed major limitations on the subjects' psychosocial reintegration, and we propose that it was in this context that they were vulnerable to suicide. The article concludes with recommendations for clinical management of people who exhibit suicide ideation or make suicide attempts after TBI.
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Tate et al. (1997) studied this question.