Preliminary findings from a US study have revealed remarkably high levels of confirmed traumatic brain injury among US combat troops who have served in Iraq. The latest results provide support for previous evidence of very high TBI rates, particularly mild TBI, in US army Iraq veterans. This has previously led US researchers to label mild TBI as the signature injury of the Iraq war.
The latest research was conducted by a large independent team of US health researchers and is reported in the latest issue of the journal Head Trauma Rehabilitation. The aim was to report the proportion of soldiers in a Brigade Combat Team (BCT) with at least one confirmed traumatic brain injury and to report the nature of the effects of the injuries.
The study screened 3973 members of the Brigade Combat Team that had served in Iraq. Of the 1292 soldiers reporting an injury 907 had sustained TBI compared to 385 with other injuries. This gives a startling figure of 22.8% of soldiers with confirmed TBI.
As with previous studies the majority of the TBIs were mild but even mild injuries can have debilitating effects. Soldiers with TBI frequently reported persistent problems with headaches, dizziness, irritability and memory problems.
In March 2008 the Ministry of Defence published a report into the rate of mild TBI in UK servicemen. The report found that mild TBI accounted for under 2% of injuries, in contrast to reported rates of 12-16% in the US. The differences between these rates remain unexplained but authorities on both sides of the Atlantic are aware of the importance of the issue and research is ongoing.
Reference:
Terrio, H. et al. (2009) Traumatic brain injury screening: Preliminary findings in a US army Brigade Combat Team, Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 24 (1), 14-23.
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