Brain Injuries During World War II

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a type of injury that is a critical public health and socio-economic problem. TBI is a leading cause of death and disability in both children and adults [5]. The Centers for Disease Control and

The effects of war are often very lessen, some factions wanting to downplay those effects in order to support your efforts and others wanting to inflate them in order to support peace. There is a disagreement in terms of persistent post concussive symptoms that are reported by Iraq combat veteran who have had repeated episodes of mild traumatic brain injury from being in close proximity to explosive blasts. This represents functional and structural brain damage and may also present with epiphenomenon of comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder

Medical and technological advances have led to greater survival rates in individuals suffering from various illness and injury throughout history. This includes individuals who suffer traumatic and nontraumatic brain injuries. Approximately 1.5 million people in the United States sustain a brain injury each year with the survival rate of over 90 percent making brain injury the leading cause for disability in the United States. (Mysiw, Bogner, Corrigan, Fugate, Clinchot, & Kadyan 2006). Cognitive, physical, sensory and behavioral changes are widely noted in individuals in the months and years following a brain injury. However, the psychosocial, psychological and emotional effects of these injuries are less discussed and therefore these aspects can be overlooked when anticipating a course of treatment. Individuals who sustain acquired brain injuries experience significant, lasting impairment in the psychosocial, psychological and emotional aspects of their lives and better understanding of these issues can lead to better treatment and coping skills for these individuals.

The American Academy of Neurology defines concussion as any trauma-induced alteration in mental status that may or may not include loss of consciousness (1997). Concussion is one of the predominant injuries within the military, with a prevalence of around 15 percent (MacGregor et al., 2010). Military personnel who have sustained a concussion are often returned to full status duty shortly after the injury-causing event (Gondusky & Reiter, 2005). In order to determine whether this is an appropriate course of action, it is imperative to be able to measure the lasting effects of concussion on neuropsychological functioning.

The participants for this research project were recruited from treatment facilities throughout Eastern Europe and the Baltic regions; initial data was collected from participants while they were still in the intensive care unit, and then every three months until one year following discharge from ICU. Each participant was analyzed for the severity of their TBI on the basis of a number of different factors, including whether or not they required surgery and the amount of time they spent in the hospital immediately following the incident (Madjan et al. 798). After gathering information on how the patients were progressing with recovery one year post-incident, the researchers compared the causes of the TBI to pinpoint similarities in recovery among all the different groups, and they also evaluated which particular means of trauma produced the most disability for the patients, both within and between groups. In the traffic- related incidents category, drivers appeared to sustain more serious injuries to the brain than passengers, pedestrians, or cyclists; in the falls category, falls from a height greater than three meters resulted in the most severe damage; and in the miscellaneous category, patients who had survived gunshot wounds generally acquired more extensive damage than other participants in the group (Madjan et al. 800). The next set of data illustrated which of these categories resulted in the

Soldiers have returned home after war and documented the horrific scenes they have been exposed to, the tough decisions they had to make in an instant, as well as the death of the enemy that they were a part of (“U.S. Soldiers after World War II”). The level of severeness as well as the duration of this disease can vary greatly between individuals. In some cases, this disease can be chronic; the afflicted individual will deal with this disease and its symptoms for the rest of his/her life. This is most common among soldiers due to the extreme situations

A traumatic brain injury (“TBI”) occurs when the brain is somehow injured, rattled, or wounded from an external source of force. The means of acquisition and the severity of TBIs are unique to each patient; therefore, symptoms and rehabilitation can vary greatly depending on the patient’s condition following the incident and how they sustained the injury. The severity of a TBI is generally classified into one of three categories: mild, moderate, or severe, and this type of diagnostic criteria influences how a patient with TBI is treated by medical staff and rehabilitation specialists. TBIs can affect a specific part of the brain that was directly impacted, leaving the patients with only one or a few areas of impairment, or the damage can

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in the military are a tangible threat to the men and women of the United States military. Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have created a spotlight on this injury, as the “signature injury”. Specific criteria makeup the definition of a TBI, which is certain symptoms and severity levels of those symptoms. Due to the capacity of this injury, the Department of Defense (DoD) and Congress have created mandates, along with treatment methods, and the ability to achieve an end goal of aiding an individual’s complete recovery.

For a long time, traumatic brain injury has been a large contributor to disabilities and death within the United States. Around 30 percent of these injuries lead to death, and those who survive these injuries may suffer from short-term side effects to long-term disabilities. It can range from a minor head injury to a major injury that you might suffer from a motorcycle accident.

It only takes a split second for a jolt to the skull to cause extensive damage and serious impairment of the voluminous and vital neurological functions. Who would be your power of attorney? How would you pay for the medical bills? Questions the majority of people never even think of- you never think it could be you. Effects may be long term or short term, depending on the gravity of the incident. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a serious public health problem in the United States. Based on recent studies, on average, 1.7 million people endure a traumatic brain injury each year.

Homemade explosives are the arsenals of choice by the terrorists not just around the world but also in their own backyards as seen in the recent war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thanks to the hard work of our Department of Defense, many of our soldiers are surviving these blasts due to improvements made to their uniforms and armor. Even though, we have been able to quickly identify and treat their visible injuries; we tend to overlook the more traumatic brain injuries and disorder these soldiers face when they return home to their families. However, the U.S. department of Defense and Veterans Health Administration have raised the awareness of promptly identifying the disabling symptoms of these injuries that may negatively affect the quality of life of our brothers and sisters that sacrifice their lives for our freedom. PTSD is a complicated disorder that affects veterans in general. The department of Veterans Affairs is devoted to provide the best care for our veterans that are diagnosed with this terrible disorder.

During World War I, thousands of British soldiers were diagnosed with “shell shock,” a condition which was thought to encompass both physical and psychological symptoms. The discovery of shell shock is typically considered to be an important catalyst in the gradual recognition of mental illnesses caused by combat. However, the characterizations of shell shock as an early discovery of post-traumatic stress disorder made by many historians are false. Shell shock should not be thought of as a credible wartime medical advancement, but as a false and primitive identification of war-trauma.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has affected many people, but has hardly raised awareness; in fact according to Marcia Clemmitt “About 1.7 million Americans suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI) every year…Yet, while they affect so many people, TBI has received little medical-research funding until brain injuries from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan … began to mount in recent years.”(Clemmitt) For such a long time many people were unaware of what traumatic brain injury even meant; Up until a numerous groups of veterans that came back home, from Afghanistan were found to suffer from traumatic brain injuries. Due to the discovery, the people that already suffered from traumatic brain injury

Evidence is mounting that a correlation exists between TBI and the likelihood of the development of a neurodegenerative disease such as AD (Weiner et al, 2013). The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have produced countless cases of TBI. It is estimated that since 2003 more than 200,000 of the men and women deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have been exposed to concussive events that have resulted in a diagnosis of TBI (DOD,

However, modern technology is helping us to properly identify the physical cause of this injury. Today the diagnosis has changed to blast shock, it properly is named because it is the blast that has been discovered to cause the damage to the brain. An autopsy was done on 8 soldiers who had died after suffering blast shock. In each brain, scare tissue was discovered. This was different from the damage done from suffering a concussion as athletes do. What was once thought o be psychological may be identified as physical. This new discovery can help t properly identify patient diagnosis and