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Pietrzak and colleagues published their study in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Mediates the Relationship Between Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Health and Psychosocial Functioning in Veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 2009;197(10):748-753).

The study, from Yale University, evaluated whether posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) mediated the relationship between mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) and general health ratings, psychosocial functioning, and perceived barriers to receiving mental healthcare 2 years following return from deployment in veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF).

"Compared with respondents who screened negative for MTBI, respondents who screened positive for MTBI were younger, more likely to have PTSD, more likely to report fair/poor overall health and unmet medical and psychological needs, and scored higher on measures of psychosocial difficulties and perceived barriers to mental healthcare. Injuries involving loss of consciousness were associated with greater work-related difficulties and unmet psychological needs. PTSD mediated the relationship between MTBI and all of these outcomes." 

The researchers concluded: "These results underscore the importance of assessing PTSD in OEF/OIF veterans who screen positive for MTBI."

For additional information, contact R.H. Pietrzak, Yale University, School Medical, National Center PTSD, VA Connecticut Healthcare Systems, 950 Campbell Avenue 151E, West Haven, CT 06516, USA.
 

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Here is a book worth checking out on Mild Brain Injury http://www.learningstore.org/we1181.html

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Indiana National Guard Sgt. Gerald "G.J." Cassidy, who served his country in Bosnia and Iraq, died alone and ignored in a barracks at Fort Knox from an accidental drug overdose. His fate left a legacy that has changed the lives of thousands of wounded soldiers, Army officials say.

Cassidy began experiencing migraine headaches after a roadside bomb exploded about 11 feet from his Humvee in Iraq in August 2006. With diagnoses of post traumatic stress disorder and mild traumatic brain injury.

One Fort Knox soldier told investigators, "The staff at the WTU did not keep accountability of soldiers and were not making any checks on the welfare of soldiers" with PTSD and brain injury.

On the day Cassidy died, his platoon sergeant reported him at formation when he actually hadn't seen him for two days.

After repeated calls from Melissa Cassidy after she had not heard from him in a couple of days, Sgt. Cassidy was found dead in his chair. A toxicology report from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology ruled his death accidental, caused by "multi-drug toxicity," compounded by coronary artery disease.

Excerpted from Soldier's hospital death leads to changes as published in Associated Press.  Information from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com

 

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