The present study forms part of a longitudinal study of mental health and covers a period of 13 years. Two fundamental findings were obtained in the present work. The first of these was in brief that the development of mental disorders and occurrence of symptoms increase with age. The other finding was that men and women differ in many ways from each other in terms of the nature of mental health. We might say that healthy as well as perhaps more disturbed narcissism takes different forms in women and men. Women are more faithful to tradition, men's interest is more directed toward social concerns and object relationships. Women are more practiced in self‐observation, while men resort to action and somatization. Women's symptoms are dominated by fear and worry, while men, following tradition have to mask their fears.
Suicide is one of the most common causes of death among disabled soldiers who had contracted brain injuries during the war in 1939-1944. Up to the close of 1957 approx. 260 had died out of about 3700 who had brain lesions. Among them 37 or 14 % were suicides; these figures include, however, 5 poisonings with hypnotics, in which an overdose of the drug might have been taken for other motives than a conscious attempt to take one's life.At the time the trauma occurred 26 or 70 % were under 25 years of age, 7 or 19 % were 25 to 34, and 4 or 10 % were 35 to 44 years old. A t the time of death 22 persons or 59 '% were under 35, 10 or 27 % were 35 to 44, and 5 or 14 % were 45 to 54 years of age. As the period of disability extends, the incidence of suicide seems to increase, since 16 had killed themselves within the first ten years after injury, and 21 had been disabled for over ten years.Within this group there were 14 unqualified workmen, 10 qualified workmen, 6 farmers, 7 students or other intellectuals. In comparison to the mean distribution of population, the rate of the farmers seems to be relatively reduced.The most common lesions within the group were injuries of the frontal and of the temporal lobes. There were 14 frontal lesions (of whom 7 had in addition wounds in the parietal area), 6 temporal, 10 parieto-occipital and 3 basal lesions, whereas no localisation could be determined in 4 cases. Closed wounds in which the dura was uninjured, numbered 20, and open wounds 17. The hemisphere distribution of injuries was 19 in the right and 14 in the left one. Slighter lesions with a disability of under 3 0 per cent have not been included into this series, moderate injuries (30-60 "/o) were 17 and severe cases (over 60 % ) were 20 in number. Epilepsy was manifested in 21 cases.In consideration of the development which resulted in suicide and the causes thereof, the series was divided as follows:
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