Combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder is more likely to have long-lasting effects on soldiers than concussions or “mild traumatic” brain injuries, according to a new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
A research team led by Melissa A. Polusny, a psychologist with the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System and the University of Minnesota Medical School, questioned 953 National Guard soldiers deployed in combat. The soldiers were interviewed in Iraq one month before returning home, and again one year later.
The result: researchers found that 7.6 percent of the soldiers were considered to probably have post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, at the time of the initial survey. A year later, the number had risen to 18.2 percent.
The researchers cited symptoms such as diminished concentration and memory, along with irritability and problems with balance.
Those symptoms, however, were not significantly more common among soldiers who suffered concussions, leading researchers to conclude that the main reason for long-term problems among the soliders was PTSD. In a news release, the authors said that “there was little evidence of a long-term negative impact of concussion/mild traumatic brain injury history on these outcomes after accounting for PTSD.”
The researchers said their findings could have implications for screening and treating soldiers who have been in combat, and noted that nearly 2 million troops have been deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001.
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