Many Different Wounds You Cannot See Still Just As Real

I often get offended when some folks want to say PTSD is an "invisible wound" almost as if that allows them to walk away without ever really thinking about it. 

Take all the other "invisible wounds" and then try to dismiss them. A broken bone does not always break through the skin, yet a broken bone still causes pain and needs help to heal. 

What about a headache or toothache? Can anyone see that pain? What about torn tendons or pulled muscles? Can anyone see them with just their eyes?

About six months ago I started to have problems with my left leg. I thought it would just get better, but it didn't. It got worse. After the last time I fell, I decided to go see my doctor.

He could tell I was in pain even though there was nothing for him to see as far as my leg was concerned. He sent me for an MRI. 

What if he didn't know me or the fact that I have a high tolerance to pain? What if he didn't believe the pain I was reporting was real?

It tuns out the MRI showed a reason for the pain. I have nerve damage and it has been causing the pain running down my leg. No one can see it with just their eyes. They can only tell by the way I walk that I am in pain.

With PTSD, no one can see it unless they either know the person or use a medical scan to see it. The fact is, the pain is so real inside, if you know them, you can see the pain they carry. You cannot see a lot of things unless you actually take the time and look.

We know that it is real, just as real, as traumatic brain injury, and that is what technology has proven. The pain is real but only machines can see what you feel. That is, unless you happen to be with others, who not only see your pain, but help you carry the load until they help you heal.

The longer you wait to heal, the more you torture yourself. You could be healing right now instead of suffering.

This video is about TBI.

Researchers Discover Link Between Concussions and Suicide

The terrifying link between concussions and suicide is the headline on the Washington Post and after reading it, it seems as if there is a lot that is contributing to suicides in our veterans. As someone with over 50 years walking around following a concussion and a fractured skull, it makes a lot of sense but it also causes concern that researchers are still learning how to crawl through researching what is happening instead of being able to run marathons on how to help healing.

The terrifying link between concussions and suicide
Washington Post
Erin Blakemore
Feburary 22, 2016

“The magnitude of the increased risk surprised me,” says Donald Redelmeier, a practicing physician and professor of medicine who led the study. “I always had my doubts about whether individuals fully recover from concussions, but I never thought I’d find a three-fold increase in risk.”

Suicide and brain injury have long been linked by scientists, but just how many people who have had a brain injury end up committing suicide? A new study has a grim answer: It found that the longterm risk of suicide increases three-fold among adults who have had concussions.

That’s the conclusion of a team of Canadian researchers who studied a health insurance database of more than 235,000 people. Their work was recently published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Rather than focus on athletes or people who were hospitalized for days or weeks after head injuries, they looked at ordinary people who had concussions but did not sustain severe brain injury.
read more here

Troops: "tens of thousands of undiagnosed and untreated brain injuries"

Study: Combat vets wait for 'wake-up call' before seeking help for brain injuries
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Tribune News Service)
By Carl Prine
Published: December 28, 2015

Veterans too often played down their wounds but became detached from friends and family. Many denied their downward spiral until a "wake-up call" forced them to seek help from Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs programs.

Johns Hopkins researchers conducted 38 in-depth interviews with Army combat veterans and their family members, and a model emerged: Veterans too often played down their wounds. Many denied their downward spiral until a "wake-up call" forced them to seek help from Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs programs. DOD

Tens of thousands of American combat veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan with undiagnosed brain injuries often were "thrown into a canyon" — falling deeper into despair and sometimes flirting with suicide or addiction — before trying to get help, according to a Johns Hopkins University study.

Written by Rachel P. Chase, Shannon A. McMahon and Peter J. Winch, researchers at the Baltimore university's Department of International Health, the study published in the December issue of Social Science and Medicine builds on previous work at Johns Hopkins. That work uncovered tens of thousands of undiagnosed and untreated brain injuries stemming from improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, the signature wound of America's 21st-century wars.

Innovations in body and vehicular armor saved the lives of troops who likely would have died of blast injuries in past wars, but survivors often had higher risk of memory loss, cognitive struggles, mood disorders, migraine headaches, addiction, insomnia and suicide.
read more here

Who really deserves to be called hero?

Who really deserves the title of hero? Is it a football player? After all, they risk their lives for their jobs. Don't they? They do it for glory

There have been a lot of reports on football players committing suicide after a head injury. There have also been many reports of troops and veterans committing suicide after TBI.
They do it for each other

Jordan Riddle's family fought hard to prevent him from becoming a statistic

Jordan Riddle's family fought hard to prevent him from becoming a statistic. They said he left for Iraq five years ago and never really came home.

"He was angry. He was hurt," said Shannon Murphy, his sister.

"It was so seldom we saw him smile," added Tommy Riddle, his dad.

His family said he suffered from a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. It got so bad his dad quit his job to try to manage his mental health care.

"The VA just, they dropped the ball," Tommy Riddle said.

So who really deserves to be called hero? Some of the football players had donated their bodies so that scientists could study their brains after head injury out of hope that one day others would not suffer the way they did. In their own way, they were thinking of their buddies the same way the troops think of theirs.

Maybe the answer to the question depends more on what they do with their lives for others, than anything else.

Researchers looking at wrong connection between TBI and suicides

Last year I did something that was really hard for me. I wrote about having TBI. My life with TBI tells the story so you won't have to read it all here. It was a traumatic event that caused my brain injury. My scull was cracked and I had a concussion. The event caused the damage to my brain as well as how I lived the rest of my life.

TBI does not cause suicides but events do. How you view your life and your future change by events and if you are not able to talk about it, work through it, it eats away at you.

In my case I was only 4 when it happened. There was a lot going on in my young life including a violent alcoholic Dad who found sobriety when I was 13. Even with all of that going on and my sense of self worth eroded, my extended family members were always talking and ready to listen. With only common sense, they were able to be surrogate psychologists and helped me work through all of it.

They gave some bad advice at times yet even when they did they made me understand that I was worthy of them even caring. I knew I was loved no matter what.

PTSD is caused by trauma. I would have ended up with PTSD after many near death experiences and none of them connected to military service because I never served. All were just part of being human. The only reason I didn't was because of talking and a whole lot of faith knowing He didn't do it to me. He helped me forgive what was done to me so other people's actions were not able to ruin me.

PTSD and TBI research overlook the obvious. They are both caused by traumatic events. They do not cause the other. When we talk about suicides trying to connect them to TBI is pretty stupid. People commit suicide because they run out of hope. Treat the PTSD properly and they gain hope that their lives can be better. Treat TBI properly and again, hope they will live better lives has therapeutic treasures.

People can live through almost anything as long as they have hope the next day can be better than the one they are suffering in right now.

They die when there is nothing to hope for.

Research examines link between traumatic brain injuries, soldier suicides
FOX 13 News
by Mark Green
June 1, 2013

SALT LAKE CITY – A new study indicates people in the military who suffer more than one traumatic brain injury have a higher risk of suicide.

Assistant psychology professor Craig Bryan, University of Utah, was the lead author of the research performed by the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah.

They studied 161 military personnel stationed in Iraq who had a possible traumatic brain injury and found their risk for suicidal thoughts increased significantly over the short-term as well as throughout the individual’s lifetime.

Bryan said the problem is complicated by the fact some soldiers are unwilling to face up to the full danger of the situation.

“Most will minimize the problems and the symptoms they’re having because they don’t want to be removed from duty,” he said. “They want to stay and continue their mission.”

Bryan said soldiers who do report symptoms after an injury usually see improvement within 24 to 72 hours of the incident.
read more here

TBI Drops in Afghanistan, Doctors Look for Cause

TBI Drops in Afghanistan, Doctors Look for Cause
Dec 19, 2012
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan

U.S. forces in Afghanistan have suffered fewer traumatic brain injuries in Afghanistan in 2012 than in 2011. Records show that traumatic brain injuries among troops in Afghanistan have dropped from 645 per month in 2011 to 373 per month through the first 10 months of this year, according to the Armed Force Health Surveillance Center in Washington, DC.

The principal reason for the drop in TBI cases is certainly tied to the statistic that shows a reduction in the number of fatalities from improvised explosive devices. In 2012, 130 troops died from IED attacks compared to 252 last year and 368 in 2010, according to the website iCasualties.org, which tracks deaths by conflict and country.

The lower TBI numbers may also be due to the lower troop levels in Afghanistan, said Navy Cmdr. Kathleen Grudzien, chief of the surveillance office at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center in Washington. The brain injury center is the TBI operational component of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.

However, she also suggested that the drop may also reflect a more aggressive approach to diagnosing and treating concussions before they turn into something more serious.
read more here

DoD and VA to Fund $100 Million PTSD and TBI Study

DoD and VA to Fund $100 Million PTSD and TBI Study
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 763-12
September 19, 2012

The Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are investing more than $100 million in research to improve diagnosis and treatment of mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

“At VA, ensuring that our Veterans receive quality care is our highest priority,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric K. Shinseki. “Investing in innovative research that will lead to treatments for PTSD and TBI is critical to providing the care our Veterans have earned and deserve.”

The two groups, the Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (CENC) and the Consortium to Alleviate PTSD (CAP) will be jointly managed by DoD and VA.

A primary goal of CENC is to establish an understanding of the aftereffects of an mTBI. Potential comorbidities also will be studied; that is, conditions associated with and worsen because of a neurotrauma.

“PTSD and mTBI are two of the most prevalent injuries suffered by our warfighters in Iraq and Afghanistan, and identifying better treatments for those impacted is critical,” said Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Dr. Jonathan Woodson. “These consortia will bring together leading scientists and researchers devoted to the health and welfare of our Nation’s service members and Veterans.”

More than 15 percent of service members and Veterans suffer impaired functioning as a result of PTSD. CAP will study potential indicators of the trauma, as well as prevention strategies, possible interventions, and improved treatments. Biomarker-based researched will be a key factor for CAP’s studies.

On Aug. 31, the President signed an executive order to improve access to mental health services for Veterans, service members and military families. As part of that executive order, the President directed the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education to develop a National Research Action Plan that will include strategies to improve early diagnosis and treatment effectiveness for TBI and PTSD. He further directed the Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a comprehensive mental health study with an emphasis on PTSD, TBI, and related injuries to develop better prevention, diagnosis, and treatment options.

Specific information on the consortia, including the full description of each award, eligibility, and submission deadlines, and General Application Instructions, are posted on the Grants.gov and CDMRP websites (http://www.grants.gov and http://cdmrp.army.mil , respectively).

My life after TBI

My life after TBI
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
September 14, 2012

About 30 years ago research in Traumatic Brain Injury began. The problem for me is, mine happened almost 50 years ago. Back then, no one thought about what happened to the brain after head trauma.

When I was 4, my family went to a drive-in movie. Back then there were two play grounds. One for young kids like me and another for older kids. The older kids had better stuff to play with and a really high slide. My brothers were older, so they used to take me up the steps of the slide. I'd sit in their laps as they took turns holding me as we went down to the bottom. I was so happy!

I was also a trouble maker. One night I got away from them. I climbed the slide all by myself but when I reached the top, there was no one to hold onto me. I was frightened. I just sat at the top trying to figure out what to do when the kid behind me was tired of waiting. He pushed me. The problem is, he pushed too hard on my right side, so I fell over the left side of the slide. I hit the ground head first.

My oldest brother ran to me, picked me up and thought I was dead.

By the time I got out of the hospital, no one connected the fact that suddenly I couldn't talk right. I ended up seeing a speech therapist. That was really kind of funny considering my Mom sent me to Greek School at the same time. It wasn't bad enough I had a thick Massachusetts accent on top of all that. Anyway, I had a hard time learning what used to come easy.

Over the years, I had to teach my brain to deal with things my way. I could hang onto things that were really important but had to let go of things that were not. If I didn't need to know it anymore, it was gone.

This caused a lot of problems for me later in life.

I do a lot of writing but have a hard time spelling.  I used to wear out dictionaries. Now I thank God for spell check because I know what the word means but I can't remember how to spell it. Grammar is another problem for me. Is it "its" or is it "it's" or is it something else? Words matter to me so that's why often you'll read posts without much fill in them. I take things out because often they may be grammatically correct but a waste of time for the reader keeping them from getting the meat of the sentence.

I do a lot of writing about what is in the Bible. While I can remember what it says, I can't remember who wrote it. I have to Google a few lines of the passage to look it up. This takes a lot of time because I may not be able to remember the entire passage right, so I end up searching over and over again to find it.

While I can remember faces, I can't remember names. While I can remember emails, it is hard for me to remember the name of the person vs the email account. While I can remember stories of people I've exchanged emails with, that gets me into trouble when I haven't been in communication with them for a long time. I have to go back to read past emails to figure out what they are talking about. With hundreds of saved emails on different topics, that takes a lot of time.

Giving speeches gets me into trouble too. If I write a speech, I mess up delivering it. Sometimes I'll look at it as if it was the first time I saw it, so now I use index cards with points I want to make sure I address unless I have spent a lot of time on the topic. Usually that is when I'm talking about PTSD or military families. When I do a presentation on those topics, I usually don't need anything to remind me.

What this all boils down to is, if you have TBI, get help and don't end up like me. I had to adjust everything in my life because no one knew I needed help or why I needed it. Take advantage of all the experts learned over the years. Let them help you and know, there is nothing to be ashamed of. You have a lot of work to do, but believe me, it will be worth it.

The other thing I want to tell you is, don't lose hope. At 51 I went back to college for certification in Digital Media at Valencia College. Yep, technical certification and I finished 5 of them! I ended up with a 3.1 GPA. Considering when I graduated high school, communication was done with a typewriter, ink ribbons and white out, but I was going to classes with students growing up with computers, if I could do it, it proves anyone can. Just set your mind as "right" as possible and do it.

New Army gear won't save lives but can save futures

Gauges worn by troops offer clues on impact from blasts
By Gregg Zoroya
USA TODAY

About 7,000 U.S. ground troops in Afghanistan are now wearing blast gauges that enable neurologists in the war zone for the first time to gather detailed profiles of explosions that cause brain damage among servicemembers.

The gauges, three of which are worn on a soldier's body, track the direction, pressure and speed of a blast wave as it overtakes a servicemember in the milliseconds after an improvised bomb detonates.

The bombs the Taliban bury along roads or pathways patrolled by Afghan and U.S. troops are among the deadliest weapons used against coalition forces.

Soldiers or Marines who step on them can be killed or lose arms and legs to the blast. Many comrades nearby are left unconscious or dazed from a brain injury scientists are still trying to understand — invisible damage long considered one of the signature wounds of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
read more here

NFL teams with Army for concussion program

NFL teams with Army for concussion program
By Barry Wilner
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Aug 30, 2012

WEST POINT, N.Y. — The NFL and U.S. Army have teamed up on a long-term program to care for and prevent concussions and head trauma, as well as other health issues.

Commissioner Roger Goodell and Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the Army chief of staff, announced the initiative at the U.S. Military Academy on Thursday.

Goodell and Odierno cited the common traits between soldiers and football players, particularly when dealing with stressful situations that can lead to injury.

“We can bring greater awareness not just to our two organizations, but to the general public,” Goodell said of the program. “We will do all we can to get our players and the soldiers to under what each other goes through. We’ll work to change our cultures by working closely together.”
read more here

Veterans exposed to explosions may be at risk for dementia

Veterans exposed to explosions may be at risk for dementia
By Gregg Zoroya
USA TODAY

A generation of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans exposed to explosions may be at risk for early-onset dementia, according to a new study that looked at the autopsied brains of four former combat servicemembers and four athletes.

Scientists said their work showed evidence of a progressive degenerative brain disorder known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease found in recent years among deceased professional football players who had suffered multiple concussions.

What researchers said was particularly alarming was evidence that the disorder could result from exposure to a single blast and that several hundred thousand U.S. troops may have suffered concussions in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of them from exposure to blasts.

"Ramifications are that these hundreds of thousands of military personnel are at risk for this disorder. It doesn't mean by any means that they all have or will get it. But they are at risk for it," says Ann McKee, a Department of Veterans Affairs scientist and co-author of the study in Science Translational Medicine.
read more here

Daily headaches common in soldiers after concussion

Let me give you some hope here. If you have TBI you'll find it helps.

Before doctors knew anything about traumatic brain injury, I had one. I was 4. My parents brought my brothers and me to a drive-in movie. There was a playground for little kids like me and another one for older kids. Well, I snuck away from my brothers, climbed the big slide and got scared being up that high alone. A kid behind me wasn't about to wait any longer, so he shoved me. The problem was, I didn't go down. I went over the side. Head first on concrete, my oldest brother thought I was dead. My scull was cracked all the way around and I had a concussion. Making a long story short, no one really connected what came next after that night.

I started to have problems with my speech. They sent me to a therapist. I couldn't remember things as easily as I did before, so I got frustrated with everything and got yelled at a lot by my parents.

That was then. I learned to play with my memory so that I could remember things. Headaches come and go even now, almost 50 years later (yes, I'm that old.) The therapy helped with my speech except when I get excited, I talk too fast. While I can read anything, I have a hard time spelling, but all that is easy to deal with.

The trauma of that night was another story. That was harder to overcome but I'm not afraid of heights anymore.

TBI is not the end of anything except the past. When you think that each day we change a little bit just living a normal life, that isn't so hard to understand. We adapt and change with what happens in our lives. That's the human spirit. Don't give up. Work on getting better with your therapist and have some patience with yourself.

Once all of these experts understand that PTSD and TBI are only connected to the event that caused both, they'll be able to treat each one differently. I don't have PTSD but as my body had to heal from the injury, my mind had to heal from the event itself. Oh, heck, maybe back then I had mild PTSD too but they didn't know anything about that either.

Daily headaches common in soldiers after concussion
By Kerry Grens
NEW YORK | Fri Mar 23, 2012 6:04pm EDT
(Reuters Health) - One in five soldiers who returns from Iraq or Afghanistan having suffered a concussion develops chronic headaches that occur at least half the days of each month, according to a new survey.

Army researchers examined nearly 1,000 soldiers with a history of deployment-related concussion and found 20 percent had suffered the frequent headaches diagnosed as "chronic daily headache" for three months or more. Of those, a quarter literally had the headaches every day.

Concussion is considered a mild traumatic brain injury and is commonly followed by headaches. But little was understood about how many military personnel were experiencing the intense head pain daily -- or close to it -- for months on end.

"In general we know that chronic daily headache is itself one of the most debilitating forms of headache...and can sometimes be difficult to treat," said Major Brett Theeler, the study's lead author.

To gauge how widespread the problem is, Theeler, a doctor with the AMEDD Student Detachment, 187th Medical Battalion, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and his colleagues surveyed 978 soldiers who had been deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
read more here

UCLA report link between PTSD and TBI which was already obvious

They're back! Stupid studies that have been done to death!

Why is it the smarter people are the more they avoid the obvious? TBI is not something you "catch" but it is always something that happens to you that could very well have killed you.

Right now we're talking about combat, PTSD and the link to TBI. Most of the time it is caused by a bomb blast along with every other horrific thing that happens when they blow up. So how is it that these really smart people say this?

The reasons for this correlation are unknown.

An exploding bomb is pretty traumatic and the force can "hurt a brain" of any human in the area.

PTSD comes after trauma and a lot of these events are violent in nature. PTSD does not cause TBI and TBI does not cause PTSD but the event itself causes both. It is obvious that the two, would in fact, go together!

UCLA scientists report link between traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder
15/02/2012

By Stuart Wolpert - UCLA life scientists and their colleagues have provided the first evidence of a causal link between traumatic brain injury and an increased susceptibility to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Their new study, published Feb. 15 in the in the journal Biological Psychology, also suggests that people who suffer even a mild traumatic brain injury are more likely to develop an anxiety disorder and should take precautions to avoid stressful situations for at least some period of time.

The motivation behind the study, which was conducted in rats, was the observed correlation of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, and PTSD, particularly in military veterans returning from service overseas, said Michael Fanselow, a UCLA professor of psychology and the senior author of the study.

The reasons for this correlation are unknown. It could be simply that the events that cause brain injury are also very frightening and that the link between TBI and PTSD could be merely incidental. Fanselow and his colleagues, however, hypothesized that the two "could be linked in a more mechanistic way."
read more here

Here are two reports from my old blog going back to 2007!

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2007

TBI kills brain cells. Results worse than thought
Scientists: TBI from war worse than thought

By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Monday Sep 24, 2007 11:51:12 EDT

Scientists trying to understand traumatic brain injury from bomb blasts are finding the wound more insidious than they once thought.

They find that even when there are no outward signs of injury from the blast, cells deep within the brain can be altered, their metabolism changed, causing them to die, said Geoff Ling, an advance-research scientist with the Pentagon.

The new findings are the result of blast experiments in recent years on animals, followed by microscopic examination of brain tissue. The findings could mean that the number of brain-injured soldiers and Marines — many of whom appear unhurt after exposure to a blast — may be far greater than reported, said Ibolja Cernak, a scientist with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

This cellular death leads to symptoms that may not surface for months or years, Cernak said. The symptoms can include memory deficit, headaches, vertigo, anxiety and apathy or lethargy.

“These soldiers could have hidden injuries with long-term consequences,” he said.

Physicians and scientists are calling TBI the “signature wound” of the Iraq war because of its increasing prevalence among troops.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2007

TBI and the thousands fighting silent war to live
Thousands of troops coping with brain damage, uncertain futures
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
AP Medical Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. --The war in Iraq is not over, but one legacy is already here in this city and others across America: an epidemic of brain-damaged soldiers.

Thousands of troops have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, or TBI. These blast-caused head injuries are so different from the ones doctors are used to seeing from falls and car crashes that treating them is as much faith as it is science.

"I've been in the field for 20-plus years dealing with TBI. I have a very experienced staff. And they're saying to me, 'We're seeing things we've never seen before,'" said Sandy Schneider, director of Vanderbilt University's brain injury rehabilitation program.

Doctors also are realizing that symptoms overlap with post-traumatic stress disorder, and that both must be treated. Odd as it may seem, brain injury can protect against PTSD by blurring awareness of what happened.

But as memory improves, emotional problems can emerge: One of the first "graduates" of Vanderbilt's program committed suicide three weeks later.

"Of all the ones here, he would not have been the one we would have thought," Schneider said. "They called him the Michelangelo of Fort Campbell" - a guy who planned to go to art school.

New treatment facility helps soldier make rapid progress against TBI

New treatment facility helps soldier make rapid progress against TBI
By JOAQUIN SAPIEN AND DANIEL ZWERDLING
ProPublica and NPR
Published: January 30, 2012
When Army Sgt. Victor Medina returned home from Iraq in the summer of 2009, his life was a shambles. His tour had been cut short after he suffered a concussion during a roadside blast. Though his injury wasn't visible, he struggled with balance and noticed that his ability to read, think and even talk had changed for the worse.

But in the spring of 2011, Medina became one of the first patients at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, the military's $65 million, state-of-the-art treatment center for brain-injured soldiers.

During his three weeks at the Bethesda, Md., center, the staff developed a rehabilitation program designed specifically for Medina. His recovery has progressed rapidly ever since, he and his wife, Roxana Delgado, told ProPublica and NPR.

Medina has continued to work from El Paso, Texas, by videoconference with a speech therapist based at the center, and he said his stutter is improving. After his injury, he had struggled to read more than a paragraph; now he says he can read and absorb two pages in one sitting. Medina also was ordered to stop driving after his injury, but he told ProPublica and NPR that he has regained his ability to do that, too.

"It's like night and day," Delgado said of his improvement.
read more here

July 2011

Report: Pentagon Center For Brain Injuries, PTSD Is Dysfunctional

Hyperbaric treatment for TBI focus of HBOT seminar

Traumatic Brain Injury to be Focus of Free HBOT Seminar on Dec. 15
Those who are curious about hyperbaric oxygen therapy — how it may help a variety of health conditions — are invited to a free seminar at The Tennessee Hyperbaric Center on Thursday, Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. Focusing especially on traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder this month, attendees will view a video provided by the Navy League of the United States, participate in a question-and-answer session and tour the Tennessee Hyperbaric Center.

Jackson, Tenn. (PRWEB) December 05, 2011

Those who are curious about hyperbaric oxygen therapy — how it may help a variety of health conditions — are invited to a free seminar at the Tennessee Hyperbaric Center on Thursday, Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. Focusing especially on traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder this month, attendees will view a video provided by the Navy League of the United States, participate in a question-and-answer session and tour the Tennessee Hyperbaric Center. The center, operated by Medical Director Dr. Roy Schmidt, is located with the Pain Specialist Center at 15 Stonebridge in Jackson.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is the only non-hormonal treatment approved by the FDA for biologically repairing and regenerating human tissue. Its off-label use may help a variety of conditions, including closed head injury/concussion, stroke, cerebral palsy, autism, Lyme disease, peripheral neuropathy syndromes/diabetes, reflex sympathetic dystrophy/complex regional pain syndrome, migraine headaches and others.

Schmidt and Kristi Hogg, patient liaison at the center, have had opportunities to discuss these applications at a number of venues. On Nov. 9, Schmidt presented a one-hour CEU training session in Memphis. His assigned topic was, “Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.” He outlined the history of HBOT and summarized several studies, including one conducted by Louisiana State University for wounded soldiers with chronic TBI.
read more here

Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Improves TBI and PTSD in Veterans

Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Improves TBI and PTSD in Veterans
by Sheela Philomena on November 30, 2011
Treatment with hyperbaric oxygen benefits veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), say researchers. The findings are available online now in the Journal of Neurotrauma.

Sixteen US veterans injured in Iraq who had been diagnosed with mild-moderate traumatic brain injury/post-concussion syndrome (TBI/PCS) or traumatic brain injury/post-concussion syndrome/post-traumatic distress disorder (TBI/PCS/PTSD) were enrolled in the pilot study. They completed a history and physical exam as well as a clinical interview by a neuropsychologist, psychometric testing, symptom and quality of life questionnaires, and baseline SPECT (Single-photon emission computed tomography) brain blood flow imaging prior to treatment. The veterans then underwent 40 treatments of low-dose hyperbaric oxygen therapy during 60-minute sessions over a 30-day period. They were retested within a week after treatment.
read more here

From 2010

Hyperbaric chamber may treat TBI
By Amy McCullough - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 30, 2010 17:17:40 EDT
The Defense Department hopes to find a better treatment for the 100,000 troops who have been diagnosed with mild Traumatic Brain Injury since 2003, and it’s looking at hyperbaric chambers — often used in cases of carbon monoxide poisoning — for the answer.

Although there have been studies looking at the impact these pressurized oxygen chambers have on TBI patients, none have been able to definitively answer whether hyperbaric oxygen can reduce or eliminate chronic symptoms of TBI such as headaches, memory loss and mood swings. A new clinical trial, which is expected to begin in January 2011, is designed to do just that.

The study, conducted by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, in Virginia, and the Army Research and Materiel Command, in Maryland, is expected to run for at least 18 months. It will include about 300 participants, mostly soldiers and Marines, and will build upon other ongoing studies on TBI treatment, said Col. Richard Ricciardi, director of the research evaluation and quality assurance and surveillance directorate at DCoE.

Five sites will participate in the study: Fort Carson, Colo.; Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Camp Lejeune, N.C.; Brooks City-Base, Texas; and possibly Fort Hood, Texas, although negotiations are still ongoing there, Ricciardi said.
read more here

from 2009


How serious is this? This is a video from 2009.

PBS NOW - Fighting the Army Part 3
Uploaded by LawyersServing on Apr 8, 2009
PBS Now investigates the thousands of soldiers who are scarred by war, and then thrown out of the military under personality disorders or for mis-conduct, and not getting treated for their service-connected injuries. Iraq veteran Jonathan Norell was among the 40,000 troops thrown out of the military for mis-conduct since 2001, even though a military doctor recommended the battle-scarred medic be medically retired due to his severe PTSD. NVLSP investigator and OIF veteran Andrew Pogany is interviewed and discusses the more than 200 wrongful discharge cases he has worked on with the advocacy organization. Military spouse and advocate Carissa Picard, with Military Spouses for Change, talks about Norell's case and the need to care for our military. Discusses a military policy changes requiring service members discharged for a personality disorder to be screened for PTSD and TBI. US Army Sgt. Chuck Luther and his family are interviewed about the impact of his struggle with the military and PTSD. US Army Col. Elspeth Ritchie is interviewed. The story aired June 13, 2008.

TBI continues to trouble the military

TBI Continues to Trouble the Military
By Grace Hood and Jim Hill

The solider readiness center at Fort Carson, CO.

Grace Hood / KUNC

In the wake of the 2007 Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal, then President George W. Bush promised the “best possible care” to wounded soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Years later, the military is still struggling to treat and diagnose the most common war wound: Traumatic Brain Injury.

An NPR News investigation, in partnership with ProPublica, has found that military leaders are refusing to carry out a testing program as Congress ordered. Military's Brain-Testing Program A Debacle is the latest in the NPR/ProPublica series entitled "Brain Wars: How the Military is Failing its Wounded."

This issue isn't just contained to Washington, as investigations and reports from Fort Carson have shed light on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and it's deleterious effects here in Colorado.

One soldier, Shawn Lynch, had to fight for his diagnosis of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. Grace Hood and Micheal de Yoanna found a tale of frustration in their investigation:

In reflecting on his experience, Staff Sergeant Lynch said he feels like the system never gave him the benefit of the doubt until his final appeal. But that's not how the Army sees it. When asked about Lynch's long and winding case, Col. Terrio at Fort Carson said: "That's exactly what we were working for is to make sure that if there was this chance that he could have possibly of sustained a traumatic brain injury that that would get documented for him."

In October, Colorado Public News, reported that the Military Lags on Promising Treatment for Brain-injured Soldiers. Another Colorado veteran, Margaux Vair, suffered from TBI and has found relief through oxygen treatments.
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Parents seek answers for son's concussion, suicide

Posting this and wondering if some of the military suicides should be tied to traumatic brain injury or if they are even looking at this?

Parents seek answers for son's concussion, suicide
By JOSEPH WHITE, AP Sports Writer
NOKESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Austin Trenum's bed remains half-made, the way a typical teenager would leave it. On a shelf is his scarred black helmet, the one he was wearing when he tackled the quarterback near the sidelines during Brentsville High's game against Handley some 11 months ago. Austin's mouthpiece remains tucked neatly in the face mask, ready to be taken out for the next play.
For Austin, there was no next play.
Downstairs in the Trenum home, in the living room to the left of the television, is a memorial in photographs to the 17-year-old college-bound senior who wore No. 43 in football, No. 14 in lacrosse, all sorts of crazy hats when he felt like it, a "fro-hawk" of curly hair, and a pair of women's sunglasses on a lark one day while riding back from the beach.
Austin's final play left him with a concussion. Two days later, with the rest of the family downstairs in the house, he went up to his room and hanged himself.
To the grieving parents, there is no doubt that one caused the other. Shortly after his death, Gil and Michelle Trenum made the difficult decision to donate Austin's brain for research. Seated around their dining table, they told their son's story, hoping his death can leave a legacy for others of lessons learned — that concussions still aren't taken as seriously as they should be; that athletes, parents, coaches, trainers and even emergency room workers are often ill-informed as to how to treat them; that more of a culture change is needed in a sport in which blows to the head are considered badges of honor.
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When you damage your brain, you lose your personality

American Football: 'When you damage your brain, you lose your personality'
New medical studies confirm what many former gridiron players have long feared – bangs to the head can have debilitating and potentially deadly consequences.

By Gerard Wright in Los Angeles

GETTY
Dave Duerson shot himself in February

There is mounting scientific and medical evidence that the collisions in American football are taking a delayed but devastating toll on the players in terms of the concussions and head trauma they cause.

There are big hits in every game at college and professional level between big men. Even a small offensive or defensive lineman can weigh 120kg (almost 19st). The collisions are a clatter of helmet on helmet, like rams butting heads, with the helmets protecting their wearers from immediate external damage.

But two medical studies have shown that athletes, in particular American footballers repeatedly concussed in their playing days, are suffering from a neurological condition, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), that mimics dementia, Alzheimer's disease and, in some cases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or motor neurone disease, the usually fatal condition with which Joost van der Westhuisen, the former Springbok scrum-half, has been diagnosed.

When you damage your brain, you lose your personality

Brain scan shows mark of bomb blasts, study finds

Brain scan shows mark of bomb blasts, study finds
Specialized test spots abnormalities in servicemen who incur concussions

By Julie Steenhuysen

6/1/2011

CHICAGO — Soldiers with traumatic brain injury caused by a blast may have abnormalities in the white matter of their brain — an important brain cell communication center — that cannot be seen on ordinary brain scans, U.S. researchers said Wednesday.

They said it is not yet clear whether the hidden injuries affect brain function or play a role in traumatic stress injuries.

Using an imaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging, researchers at Washington University of St. Louis studied 63 injured soldiers who had been evacuated to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany from Iraq and Afghanistan after being exposed to different types of blasts.
They found abnormalities in 18 out 63 patients diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury from blasts, but not among 21 control subjects who were injured in other ways.

The areas highlighted in the study have not been seen in other studies using the same imaging technology in civilians with brain injuries, suggesting there may be something different that occurs in blast injuries.
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Brain scan shows mark of bomb blasts, study finds