Epilepsy in Soldiers With Brain Injuries
With the War in Iraq technically over, many veterans are returning home.
The American Academy of Neurology reports Soldiers With Brain Injuries are at Higher Risk Of Epilepsy Years after Returning Home.
The new research is published in the July 20, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, entitled correlates of posttraumatic epilepsy 35 years following combat brain injury (cme). - Raymont, V., Salazar, A.M., Lipsky, R., Goldman, D., Tasick, G., Grafman, J.. Pages: 224-229.
This is certainly consistent with what I have posted about previously including previous studies and articles. We have known for years that traumatic brain injury increases the chance of developing epilepsy.
Epilepsy is a general term for conditions with recurring seizures. There are many kinds of seizures, but all involve abnormal electrical activity in the brain that causes an involuntary change in body movement or function, sensation, awareness, or behavior. Epilepsy can be caused by many different conditions that affect a person’s brain. Examples of these conditions include stroke, head trauma, complications during childbirth, infections (such as meningitis, encephalitis, cysticercosis, or brain abscess), and certain genetic disorders. Often, no definite cause can be found.
Epilepsy affects an estimated 2.5 million people in the United States and each year accounts for $15.5 billion in direct costs (medical) and indirect costs (lost or reduced earnings and productivity). More than one-third of people with epilepsy continue to have seizures despite treatment.
Each year, about 200,000 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed in the United States. Children younger than age 2 years and adults older than age 65 are most likely to be affected. In addition, people of low socioeconomic status, those who live in urban areas, and members of some minority populations are at increased risk for epilepsy.
According to Medilexicon's 
dementia were assessed. These patients were followed for between 0.8 and 5.5 years after having the scan and underwent between two and six assessments for dementia during that timeframe.
may be reclassified as being in a permanent vegetative state. Recall 
Another condition is known as "Locked-In Syndrome." Locked-in syndrome is a rare neurological disorder characterized by complete paralysis of voluntary muscles in all parts of the body except for those that control eye movement. It may result from traumatic brain injury, diseases of the circulatory system, diseases that destroy the myelin sheath surrounding nerve cells, or medication overdose. Individuals with locked-in syndrome are conscious and can think and reason, but are unable to speak or move. The disorder leaves individuals completely mute and paralyzed. Communication may be possible with blinking eye movements
Robert C. Griggs, MD, FAAN, President of the American Academy of Neurology and The American Academy of Neurology, the world's largest professional association of neurologists, is encouraged by news reports that the National Football League will soon implement a new policy requiring an independent neurologist to evaluate players who have suffered a 
over 200 billion nerve cells), and human brains vary between 1.25 kg and 1.45 kg (with an estimated 85 billion nerve cells). A honeybee's brain weighs only 1 milligram and contains fewer than a million nerve cells. .jpg)
The belief that healthy older brains are substantially smaller than younger brains may stem from studies that did not screen out people whose undetected, slowly developing brain disease was killing off cells in key areas, according to new research. As a result, previous findings may have overestimated atrophy and underestimated normal size for the older brain. 
the brains of newborns suffering from oxygen and blood flow deprivation stops a type of brain damage that is a leading cause of cerebral palsy, mental retardation and death, according to researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
