New study looks for brain injury-dementia link

Scientists in Scotland have begun study into the link between traumatic brain injury and dementia.

A team of researchers from the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow will be using a grant from the American National Institutes of Health to carry out the research, according to the Herald.

The centre was chosen as it has a world-renowned bank of brain tissue, collected post-mortem from people who have had traumatic head injuries and dementia.

It is hoped that by understanding the way in which brains are damaged after an accident, a greater knowledge can be gained about how dementia develops.

We have been looking at samples of brains of those who have survived many years after a head injury, and the pathological development is similar to Alzheimer's," study leader Dr Willie Stewart told the publication.

According to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, the number of people living with dementia in the UK currently sits at around 820,000.

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