Premium
Introduction: Evolution of military and veterans brain health research
Author(s) -
Friedl Karl E.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2014.05.001
Subject(s) - military service , psychiatry , service member , military personnel , mental health , medicine , depression (economics) , vietnam war , posttraumatic stress , psychology , political science , law , economics , macroeconomics
Recent military conflicts have resulted in a new focus on brain injury andbrain healthof servicemembers and agingveterans. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been characterized by injuries from improvised explosive devices, including nearly a quarter million cases of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) since 2000 [1]. Brain injuries represent a higher proportion of injuries compared with previous conflicts such as the Vietnam War, in part because the modern body armor has altered the pattern of combat injuries. Although most patients withmTBI recover, persistentmTBI can include incapacitating multisensory and neuropsychological symptoms and other delayed problems include depression and behavioral dysfunction [2–4]. In 2011, there were 1,542,625 veterans receiving compensation for tinnitus and hearing loss problems alone. These injuries are combined with high rates of psychological trauma, including . 100,000 new combatrelated cases of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in service members since 2000 and more than one half million veterans from all wars receiving compensation for unresolved PTSD in 2011 [1].As a result of theVietnamandfirstGulfWar experiences, PTSD is better recognized and treated than ever before,whereas someKoreanWarveterans are only nowbeing diagnosed for long untreated conditions [5]. Stigma has also been reduced for some mental health issues. Military leaders have helped to change a culture that previously labeled PTSD as a personal failing. When General Peter Chiareilli was the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, he initiated Armywide educationcampaigns on suicide andmental health issues, promoting a new perspective that it was possible for anyone to break under stress, and it was important for soldiers to seek medical help, be restored to full function, and continue their military career [6]. Just as soldiers with lower limb amputations have now returned to function with prosthetic legs and are leading troops in Afghanistan [7], soldiers who have suffered fromPTSD have also been treated and continue to serve. These new priorities have been substantially promoted by