Calls for Renewed Focus on Traumatic Brain Injuries

By Shar Adams Epoch Times Staff Created: March 22, 2012 Last Updated: March 22, 2012

Dr. Bart Winter, Fort Sill Traumatic Brain Injury clinic physician, examines a "H.E.A.D.S. UP Warrior" banner that lists the signs of a concussion with Dr. Jason Albano, TBI neuropsychologist, and Public Health Service Lt. Dennis Ward, TBI program director. Staff members at the clinic work with soldiers wounded by improvised explosive device blasts or other head trauma in combat. (Ben Sherman, Fort Sill)

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) has long been underreported and misunderstood, but its increasing prevalence in the United States, particularly in the military, is engendering calls for more focus on it.

Approximately 1.7 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury in the United States annually reports the Centers of Disease Control Prevention (CDC), and traumatic brain injury now accounts for over three-quarters of all injury related deaths.

Within U.S defense forces, mild traumatic brain injury has become the signature injury of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, largely due to the improvised explosive device (IED). With improvements in protective armor and better medical care, soldiers are returning from close proximity IED explosions, but with impacts to the brain not yet clearly understood, according to University of Californias Dr. Alisa Gean, who contributed to a paper on the issue.

The case of Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, however, is sure to raise the profile of the disease in coming weeks.

Bales is accused of a shooting rampage in Afghanistans Kandahar Province that left 16 civilians dead in their homes on March 11. According to his lawyer, Bales is unable to recall his actions and his behavior appears out of character, say his friends, family members, and colleagues. There are suggestions his actions may be linked to TBI through an incident during a 2010 deployment in Iraq when his vehicle rolled over and he sustained a concussion.

The Department of Defense (DOD) has struggled to gain information on TBI, to identify it and even to garner specific numbers of those affected. The DOD, for example, estimates that 50,000 soldiers may have TBI. The Pentagon puts that closer to 150,000, while the Rand Corporation suggests that 19 percent of returning service members have experienced a possible traumatic brain injury while deployed.

But it is not only the military that is endeavoring to find authoritative sources. A congressional hearing in Washington, on the eve of National Brain Injury Awareness Day March 21, heard from government health officials, doctors in the field, and nongovernment organizations, on ways to increase understanding of the issue and better coordinate recovery treatment.

According to the Brain Trauma Foundation, TBI occurs when a sudden trauma, often a blow or jolt to the head, causes damage to the brain.

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Calls for Renewed Focus on Traumatic Brain Injuries