General: Most Soldiers With TBI Heal

[unhappycamper]

General: Most Soldiers With TBI Heal
March 05, 2009
Army News Service

WASHINGTON - Mild traumatic brain injury, also known as a concussion, affects from 10 to 20 percent of service members returning from combat deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan.

During a roundtable discussion March 4, at the Pentagon as part of "Brain Injury Awareness Month," Brig. Gen. Loree K Sutton, director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, said more than 90 percent of servicemembers with TBI have concussions and recovery quickly.

"I can't stress this enough," Sutton said. "The vast majority of people with TBI will get better. Certainly the moderate or more severe cases will take longer to recover, but it is also important to recognize this is not an individual concern alone. That's where family comes in, the unit comes in, and the community comes in."

Mild TBI -- concussions -- are the result of a hit or blow to the head and can result in disorientation, headaches, dizziness, balance difficulties, ringing in the ears, blurred vision, and memory gaps. The Army and other services screen for concussions with a tool called the Military Acute Concussion Evaluation. The tool, recently supported by the Institutes of Medicine, was first released in August 2006.

The military also uses the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metric, or ANAM, to set baselines for servicemembers before deployment. The tool establishes a baseline for a Soldier's reaction time, their short-term memory and other cognitive skills and the results can be used by providers as another critical piece of information for the evaluation and management of injured servicemembers, Sutton said.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/army-news/general-most-soldiers-with-tbi-heal.html?col=1186032369115

[MADem]

1. Get better, sure. Time will do that with everything, pretty much...except the stuff that kills ya.

It's an insult, though--I don't think anyone comes back to a hundred percent--some might get close enough that the difference isn't noticeable, though.

[KewlKat]

2. I've been waiting for years for the US to market an invention

that we developed. It's called a Brainport. They've been expanding it's potential and I was happy to see that they've added TBI to their list of studies. Perhaps it will help many recover more of what was lost. It's being sold in Canada, UK, Belgium and France, but not where it was made. Good old FDA approval......not here yet.

http://wicab.it/media/sfn2007poster2.pdf