Brain injury similarities in troops, football players spur collaboration, research

The gridiron and the battlefield have little in common, but brain injuries plaguing combat veterans and former football players has doctors and veterans advocates eager to bring brain injury research out of the dark ages.

Its too early to determine the similarities and differences of brain trauma between veterans and football players.

In the days immediately after their injuries, both are treated the same way: with rest and treatment of pain and other symptoms.

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We still dont know what the complete answer is, said Dr. Ann McKee, the chief of neuropathology in the VA Boston Healthcare System and a professor of neurology and pathology at the Boston University School of Medicine. I can tell you there are some parallels, and also some differences, but its very early on in research.

Mike Helm, the new national commander of the American Legion, said its time for researchers to learn from one another.

He said new Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald has the same idea.

He wants to have a summit, Mr. Helm said. The veteran population is not the only one suffering from traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress. You have your football population, you have any of your athletics deal with that, so its not just a veteran population problem, its a national problem. And he wants to bring everyone onboard and have a summit of some kind and fix it as well as he can.

Though no summit is scheduled, Mr. Helm said, he is happy that the VA secretary is making a priority of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Since 2000, more than 300,000 cases of traumatic brain injury have been diagnosed among active-duty troops, according to data from the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, though the rate has fallen from a record 32,000 diagnosed in 2011 to 12,000 in the first half of 2014.

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Brain injury similarities in troops, football players spur collaboration, research