United States veterans of the Iraqi (Operation Iraqi Freedom [OIF]) and Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom [OEF]) conflicts have frequently returned from deployment after sustaining mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and enduring stressful events resulting in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A large number of returning service members have been diagnosed with both a history of mTBI and current PTSD. Substantial literature exists on the neuropsychological factors associated with mTBI and PTSD occurring separately; far less research has explored the combined effects of PTSD and mTBI. The current study employed neuropsychological and psychological measures in a sample of 251 OIF/ OEF veterans to determine whether participants with a history of mTBI and current PTSD (mTBI + PTSD) have poorer cognitive and psychological outcomes than participants with mTBI only (mTBI-o), PTSD only (PTSD-o), or veteran controls (VC), when groups are comparable on intelligence quotient, education, and age. The mTBI + PTSD group performed more poorly than VC, mTBI-o, and PTSD-o groups on several neuropsychological measures. Effect size comparisons suggest small deleterious effects for mTBI-o on measures of processing speed and visual attention and small effects for PTSD-o on measures of verbal memory, with moderate effects for mTBI + PTSD on the same variables. Additionally, the mTBI + PTSD group was significantly more psychologically distressed than the PTSD-o group, and PTSD-o group was more distressed than VC and mTBI-o groups. These findings suggest that veterans with mTBI + PTSD perform significantly lower on neuropsychological and psychiatric measures than veterans with mTBI-o or PTSD-o. The results also raise the possibility of mild but persisting cognitive changes following mTBI sustained during deployment.
The differences in drug therapy found in this study may indicate that patients with TBI and PTSD respond differently to treatment than patients with PTSD alone.
Twenty-eight workers with long-term repetitive high exposures to 1,1,1-trichloroethane were evaluated for complaints of short-term memory loss, disequilibrium, moodiness, irritability, and decreased ability to concentrate. As a group, they had significant deficits in memory, intermediate memory, rhythm, and speed as measured by the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery. Platform posturography demonstrated deficits in vestibular, somatosensory, and ocular components of balance. The encephalopathic picture in these patients is similar to what has been described after exposure to other solvents.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.