Traumatic Brain Injury Increasing Problem for US Soldiers in Iraq

San Diego, CATraumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the worst brain injuries to have. The so-called closed-head injury occurs when the skull itself is not compromised, so the injury is to the brain only and is often not readily apparent from the initial brain injury accident. The latter has become the bane of soldiers serving in Iraq.

According to a new study recently published in the Journal of Rehabilitation, TBI together with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are the two disabilities most common in US soldiers serving in the Iraq conflict.

H.S. Burke and colleagues from San Diego State University found that "TBI and PTSD combined presents an array of challenges for injured persons that are experienced differently by those separately affected by TBI or PTSD. Hence, the combination of TBI and PTSD presents a new disability classification for the rehabilitation counseling profession. There is an acute need to develop and facilitate specialized care and rehabilitative services for veterans impacted by this nascent disability. We highlight neurobiological, behavioral, and physiological characteristics associated with combat-incurred TBI/PTSD injuries."

TBI is an internal injury of the brain typified by the repaid jostling of the brain inside the skull: a skiing accident is a good example of this, whereby a TBI victim has his head well-protected with a helmet shielding the skull, but the helmet can do nothing to prevent the brain from bouncing around inside the skull when encountering a fixed object at high speed.

A concussion, a form of TBI is often the result. We all remember actor Natasha Richardson, and the TBI from a relatively minor skiing accident that took her life.

For soldiers in the Iraq conflict, there are a number of dangers that can result in traumatic, closed-head injuries to the brain as well as other horrific injuries.

However TBI injuries are often invisible and thus hard to treat. Brain impact with the skull can cause internal swelling. If treatment is delayed the swelling of the brain within an intact skull can have dire consequences.

In ' A New Disability for Rehabilitation Counselors: Iraq War Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,' researchers Burke et al afforded "recommendations for rehabilitation counseling professionals and researchers to consider in response to our review of the current system of veteran care, common barriers to rehabilitation and societal re-integration, and available resources for military personnel impacted by TBI and PTSD."

Any individual who has suffered lasting ill effects from a brain injury accident would be well advised to consult a brain injury lawyer conversant with brain injury law.