(Press-News.org) Combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms appear to be associated with longer-term physical (headache, tinnitus), emotional (irritability) and cognitive (diminished concentration or memory) symptoms, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Conversely, concussion/mild traumatic brain injuries (MTBI) do not appear to have long-term negative effects on troops.
"Nearly 2 million troops have been deployed to Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom since 2001," the authors write as background information in the article. "High levels of combat exposure have been documented among Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom-deployed soldiers, with increased risk of blast exposure and injury and development of post-deployment mental and physical health problems."
Although there has been a focus by the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration on early identification of concussion, little data exist on the long-term, functional effects of concussion on returning soldiers. To examine the associations between concussion and PTSD symptoms reported during deployment and long-term psychosocial outcomes, Melissa A. Polusny, Ph.D., of the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System and the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, and colleagues, surveyed 953 combat-deployed U.S. National Guard Soldiers.
Consistent with demographics of infantry soldiers deployed to Iraq, 92.5 percent of participants were male, 87.1 percent were white, 46.4 percent were younger than 30 and 86.5 percent were enlisted rank. Soldiers were surveyed in Iraq one month before returning home, and again one year later.
At the time of the first survey, 7.6 percent of all participating soldiers met criteria for probable PTSD. This rate increased to 18.2 percent at the time of the second survey. Change in PTSD symptoms between the two surveys was no different for those who reported concussion in the first survey and those who did not. Reporting of PTSD at the time of survey one strongly predicted post-deployment symptoms, including memory and balance problems, difficult concentrating and irritability.
The rate of reported concussion at the time of the first survey was 9.2 percent and increased to 22 percent at the second survey. Of those reporting concussion at the first survey, 30.2 percent had probable PTSD at the time of the second survey. Additionally, of the 22 percent who reported concussion during the second survey, 30.4 percent also had probable PTSD at that time. Soldiers with a history of reported concussion were also more likely to report post-concussive symptoms after deployment; however, after adjusting for PTSD symptoms, the association between these symptoms and concussion was not significant.
"Although combat-related PTSD was strongly associated with post-concussive symptoms and psychosocial outcomes one year after soldiers return from Iraq, there was little evidence of a long-term negative impact of concussion/mild traumatic brain injury history on these outcomes after accounting for PTSD," the authors conclude. "These findings and the two-fold increase in reports of deployment-related concussion/MTBI history have important implications for screening and treatment."
###
(Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2011;68[1]:79-89. Available pre-embargo to the media at www.jamamedia.org.)
Editor's Note: This study is based on work supported in part by the Rapid Response Project from the VA, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Research and Development and is the result of work supported with resources and the use of facilities at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
To contact Melissa A. Polusny, Ph.D., call Ralph Heussner at 612-467-3012 or e-mail Ralph.heussner@va.gov.
For More Information: Contact the JAMA/Archives Media Relations Department at 312-464-JAMA or email: mediarelations@jama-archives.org.
END
Jerusalem, January 3. 2011 – With the current outbreak of the flu season in Israel, hospitals are reporting overcrowding, and doctors are advising people who have not yet been vaccinated against flu to get their shots.
Surprisingly, however, three physicists -- one from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and two others from the University of Michigan – have developed an unconventional, theoretical strategy for intensive but limited vaccination against infectious diseases (such as flu) that would replace the practice of mass inoculation over a prolonged period. The ...
In emerging countries such as China or Brazil, meat consumption is rising dramatically. Indeed, worldwide consumption of red meat has quadrupled since 1961. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) expects increasing prosperity to lead to a doubling of global meat production by the year 2050. The question is whether our planet, with its limited farmland resources, will still be able to meet all of our needs into the future. Possible solutions for the brewing dilemma are familiar to Dr.-Ing. Peter Eisner of the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering ...
CO2 is more than just a waste product. In fact, it has a variety of uses: the chemical industry makes use of this colorless gas to produce urea, methanol and salicylic acid. Urea is a fertilizer, methanol is a fuel additive, and salicylic acid is an ingredient in aspirin.
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT in Oberhausen are pursuing a new idea by testing how carbon dioxide can be used to impregnate plastics. At a temperature of 30.1 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 73.8 bar, CO2 goes into a supercritical state ...
VIDEO:
University of Cincinnati researcher Kathleen Lynch, associate professor of classics, examines a time line of wine-drinking cups in ancient Athens. Changes in these cups, which were used in symposia (think...
Click here for more information.
How commonly used items – like wine drinking cups – change through time can tell us a lot about those times, according to University of Cincinnati research to be presented Jan. 7 by Kathleen Lynch, UC associate professor of classics, ...
The hair color of an unknown perpetrator who has committed a crime will soon no longer be a secret for forensic investigators. Erasmus MC scientists, in collaboration with their Polish colleagues, have discovered that DNA can be used to predict people's probable hair color. Their findings¹ will be published today in the Springer journal Human Genetics.
The research findings demonstrate that on the basis of DNA information it is possible to determine with an accuracy of more than 90 percent whether a person has red hair, with a similarly high accuracy whether a person ...
MANHATTAN, KAN. -- When engineers restore rivers, one Kansas State University professor hopes they'll keep a smaller engineer in mind: the North American beaver.
Beavers are often called ecosystem engineers because they can radically alter stream or valley bottom ecosystems, said Melinda Daniels, an associate professor of geography who recently studied the connection between beavers and river restoration. Beaver dams create diverse river landscapes, she said, and can turn a single-thread channel stream into a meadow, pond or multichannel, free-flowing stream.
"Our argument ...
Philadelphia, PA, January 3, 2011 – Postoperative adhesions are a major complication in strabismus surgery. Amniotic membrane has been used in the hopes of preventing these adhesions by forming a biological barrier during healing. In an article in the December 2010 issue of the Journal of AAPOS, the Official Publication of the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, a team of researchers from Cairo University have discovered that the new approach may also have the opposite effect.
Dr. Rehab Kassem and coauthors describe how they wrapped the extraocular ...
Thick gravel, mud, snow, steep ramps or hills . . . They might get a pedestrian a little dirty or out of breath, but to someone in an electric wheelchair, they could mean terrain that's simply too difficult to cross alone.
To address this problem, researchers at the Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering are working on technology that will enable electric-powered wheelchairs to detect hazardous terrain and automatically adjust their control settings to maneuver more safely.
Emmanuel Collins is the John H. Seely Professor of Mechanical ...
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (WFUBMC) have discovered what may become a new weapon in the fight against breast cancer. For the first time, a peptide found in blood and tissue has been shown to inhibit the growth of human breast tumors in mice, according to a study recently published in the journal Cancer Research.
Patricia E. Gallagher, Ph.D., and E. Ann Tallant, Ph.D., scientists in the Hypertension and Vascular Research Center at WFUBMC, demonstrated that the peptide angiotensin-(1-7) attacked breast cancer in two ...
(Boston) - Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and the Bedford VA Medical Center believe that risk-adjusted percent time in therapeutic range (TTR) should be used as part of an effort to improve anticoagulation control and thus improve patient outcomes. These findings appear in this month's issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Oral anticoagulation with warfarin is received by millions of Americans each year to treat blood clots and to prevent strokes. While warfarin is effective, it is difficult to thin a patient's blood ...
