Troops Must Be Screened For Brain Injury Before, After Returning From Combat, Task Force Says

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience
Article Date: 08 May 2007 - 22:00 PST

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The Department of Defense must screen U.S. troops for traumatic brain injury before and after they are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan to better determine whether they sustained brain damage in combat, according to a Congressional Brain Injury Task Force plan announced Thursday, USA Today reports. The task force also recommended improving brain-injury research and specialized care for what experts say is the "signature wound of these wars," according to USA Today.

Pentagon spokesperson Chuck Dasey said that between 10% and 20% of returning troops screened at military bases may have sustained brain injuries. Task force Chair Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) estimates that as many as 150,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan might have mild, moderate or severe brain injuries. Pascrell said, "The military was blindsided by the number of blast victims in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it is clear that proper resources were never in place to care for them." Congress and the White House are negotiating a supplemental war appropriations bill that would provide $450 million for research and treatment of brain injuries.

Also on Thursday, a Pentagon mental health task force said that the dual challenge of brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder have "exposed gaps" in the DOD health system. Pentagon spokesperson Cynthia Smith said that although a brain-injury screening system was developed several years ago, it has not been used for all returning soldiers. The Department of Veterans Affairs last month began traumatic brain injury screening for every Iraq or Afghanistan veteran arriving at one of its 1,400 facilities, according Barbara Sigford, VA director of physical medicine and rehabilitation (Zoroya, USA Today, 5/4).

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