Abstract

Traumatic brain injury in returning Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans has been the subject of numerous articles by the popular press and congressional inquires. Recent research has questioned the accuracy of the traumatic brain injury diagnosis in veterans with depression and/or posttraumatic stress disorder and the validity of the Veterans Affairs traumatic brain injury screening tool to identify traumatic brain injury in returning combat veterans.Medical records of all combat veterans in the Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System who both screened positive for traumatic brain injury and received clinical evaluation for traumatic brain injury during the first year of the Veterans Affairs traumatic brain injury screening program were reviewed to explore the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder and self-reported symptoms attributed to deployment-related traumatic brain injury.Ninety-four combat veterans identified from positive traumatic brain injury screens were seen in the Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System from April 1, 2007, to March 30, 2008. Eighty-five percent of the veterans with positive screens met the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine definition of probable traumatic brain injury. Symptom reporting was similar for veterans with and without a history of traumatic brain injury. Veterans with both posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury were more likely to report falling as a mechanism of injury and indicated that they had suffered a head injury during deployment (P

View details for DOI 10.1097/PHM.0b013e3181ae0f83

View details for Web of Science ID 000268475400001

View details for PubMedID 19620825