Dear Editor: I am writing this after reading Karl Curtis' column on brain injuries in the hope that it may be helpful to some of your readers.

Our son Chris committed suicide eight years ago at the age of 31. He'd had a head injury long ago, in childhood, which he'd seemed to recover from fine. But we discovered after his death that he'd never been able to have full sex with his girlfriend, and also that his depression had been far worse than we knew, going back 10 years at least.

We looked it up and found that head injury, even mild (which Chris' wasn't; he fractured his skull) can cause damage to the pituitary gland, and the effects can be depression, lost sex drive, lost fertility, obesity and chronic fatigue, plus less serious symptoms like intolerance of heat or cold. The pituitary disorder (post-traumatic hypopituitarism or PTHP) may show immediately, or not until many years later. It is treatable by replacing the hormones which the pituitary can no long make.

Cranial irradiation can cause hypopituitarism also.

Growth hormone replacement can restore clear thought and energy levels, and may reduce weight. It can also help fatigue and depression. The other pituitary hormones that may need replacing are ACTH, LH/FSH, and TSH. LH/FSH replacement can restore sex drive and fertility.

For more detail plus the research see my book "Mother of a Suicide" available from Amazon.

Joanna Lane

London, UK

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Joanna Lane:: Brain injury can cause treatable pituitary disorder - Madison.com

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