Health symptoms after war zone deployment-related mild traumatic brain injury: contributions of mental disorders and lifetime brain injuries.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To gain a better understanding of the complex relationship between combat deployment-related mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and persistent post-concussive symptoms (PPCSs), taking into consideration a wide range of potentially mediating and confounding factors. RESEARCH DESIGN: Cross-sectional. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Subjects were 613 U. S. military Veterans and Service Members who served during operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, or New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) and completed a structured interview of mental disorders and a battery of questionnaires. Hierarchical binary logistic regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: After accounting for mental disorders, lifetime mTBIs outside of OEF/OIF/OND deployment, medical conditions, and injury/demographic characteristics, deployment-related mTBI continued to be associated with several PPCSs (headaches, sleep disturbance, and difficulty making decisions). Deployment-related mTBI was also associated with two symptoms not normally associated with mTBI (nausea/upset stomach and numbness/tingling). CONCLUSIONS: After adjusting for a wide range of factors, OEF/OIF/OND deployment-related mTBI was still associated with PPCSs on average 10 years after the injury. These findings suggest that mTBI sustained during OEF/OIF/OND deployment may have enduring negative health effects. More studies are needed that prospectively and longitudinally track health and mental health outcomes after TBI.
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Related Subject Headings
- Veterans
- Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
- Rehabilitation
- Mental Disorders
- Humans
- Cross-Sectional Studies
- Brain Injuries
- Brain Concussion
- Afghan Campaign 2001-
- 5203 Clinical and health psychology
Citation
Published In
DOI
EISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Location
Related Subject Headings
- Veterans
- Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
- Rehabilitation
- Mental Disorders
- Humans
- Cross-Sectional Studies
- Brain Injuries
- Brain Concussion
- Afghan Campaign 2001-
- 5203 Clinical and health psychology