Combat veterans brain injuries

waltky

Wise ol' monkey
Feb 6, 2011
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Okolona, KY
Families also affected by veterans brain injuries...

US Combat Veterans Not Alone with Brain Injuries
Dec 28, 2015 | Tens of thousands of American combat veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan with undiagnosed brain injuries often were "thrown into a canyon" -- falling deeper into despair and sometimes flirting with suicide or addiction -- before trying to get help, according to a Johns Hopkins University study.
Written by Rachel P. Chase, Shannon A. McMahon and Peter J. Winch, researchers at the Baltimore university's Department of International Health, the study published in the December issue of Social Science and Medicine builds on previous work at Johns Hopkins. That work uncovered tens of thousands of undiagnosed and untreated brain injuries stemming from improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, the signature wound of America's 21st-century wars. Innovations in body and vehicular armor saved the lives of troops who likely would have died of blast injuries in past wars, but survivors often had higher risk of memory loss, cognitive struggles, mood disorders, migraine headaches, addiction, insomnia and suicide.

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The Johns Hopkins researchers conducted 38 in-depth interviews in 2013 and 2014 with Army combat veterans and their family members, and a model emerged: Veterans too often played down their wounds but became detached from friends and family. Many denied their downward spiral until a "wake-up call" forced them to seek help from Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs programs. Aid could be difficult to obtain, however, without documentation that other soldiers obtained after 2007 because of better battlefield and post-deployment screening protocols. "When veterans came to me before the study, there was so much uncertainty. They told me that they thought that they 'were alone' when they came home, but these actually were shared experiences. Their symptoms were very similar, so a picture of their lives post-blast exposure needed to be modeled," said Chase, who has a doctorate in international health from Johns Hopkins.

Veterans with the best outcomes typically had spouses who prodded them to get help or lived near a respected clinic that specialized in brain injury care or one that boasted an exceptionally good medical provider, "even within a reportedly low-functioning facility," researchers found. The study found that veterans exposed to another bomb blast after 2010 -- when the military increased its efforts to diagnose and treat every brain injury from war or training -- often had better outcomes than those who were not wounded again. Chase credited such post-2010 help to an evolving "social dynamic" within the military. Commanders now make sure troops get screened for potential concussions and are more likely to keep them out of training or off the battlefield until doctors clear them, she said.

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I was at the Indianapolis airport last week waiting to pick up our daughter when a lady asked me to take a group picture of their family. They had just welcomed home their combat veteran son (I could tell by the signs they were holding). I used one of their phones to capture several pictures and then asked "who are you welcoming home"? They introduced me to the young man and I could see in his face "get me the fuck out of here". I shook his hand and wished him luck.

I think that's the last thing these guys want when returning home. My stepson didn't even tell us when or where he was returning from his second Afghanistan deployment. He ultimately received a Bronze Star for the shit that went down over there. Folks should keep this shit on the down-low. At the airport, at home,

There are consusive brain injuries and there are mental brain injuries.

Just spirit them away incognito, take them home, remind them where the fridge and bathroom are... and leave them the fuck alone until they're ready to receive you. Not the other way around.
 
Figures! That's how much we value vets for saving our hides and our Country. Our lack of appreciation and compassion are unconscionable.
 
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Most of the vets I know who come back need six months to a year at least to readjust.

It's best to not crowd them and allow them time to integrate, as best they can, back into society.

*****SMILE*****



:)
 
Quietly remove them from the airport, take them home, and tell them to go to bed. Just like you did before they were deployed. Just like you did when they were infants. Treat them as such. Fry some bacon the next morning.

Pork... it's what an American's breakfast.

Unlike Obama's breakfast.
 
How much sleep does Bush lose over having started a war?

I watched hurt locker the other day, and the guy gets shot and then tells the guy who caused it to fuck off as he screwed this other guy's life up. But Bush did this on a monumental scale. How many lives has he ruined?
 
How much sleep does Bush lose over having started a war?

I watched hurt locker the other day, and the guy gets shot and then tells the guy who caused it to fuck off as he screwed this other guy's life up. But Bush did this on a monumental scale. How many lives has he ruined?
The Commander in Chief does't ruin lives, he makes them.
 
How much sleep does Bush lose over having started a war?

I watched hurt locker the other day, and the guy gets shot and then tells the guy who caused it to fuck off as he screwed this other guy's life up. But Bush did this on a monumental scale. How many lives has he ruined?

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The Congress of the United States voted to declare war on Afghanistan and Iraq

How much sleep has Obama, and the progressives who voted him in, lost over the lives lost, both military and civilian, as your blood soaked Nobel Champion Of Peace unseats governments across the Middle East in his "War That's Not A War"?

Over 25,000 in Libya alone during your hero's six month bombing escapade. Probably four times that number in the aftermath, including Benghazi, as the country ran lawless.

How many dead in Somalia, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Etc... in your hero's little "War That's Not A War"?

Where's the Declarations Of War from Congress for each country your gore splattered Nobel War Criminal has bombed?

*****SMILE*****



:)
 
Pentagon interested in brain-stimulating devices...
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Regulation of Brain-stimulating Devices Unclear as Popularity Grows in US
August 29, 2016 - Two developments over the past month signaled the growing popularity of transcranial direct current stimulation, commonly referred to as tDCS, in America.
In late July, the U.S. Defense Department announced that Halo Sport would partner with a Pentagon start-up company (Defense Innovation Unit Experimental hyperlink) to use the device to bolster the athleticism of elite American special operations troops, already highly-skilled professional soldiers who train hard to maintain top physical conditioning. “This new approach is already generating lots of enthusiasm,” Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said during an official launch of the partnership. “Our military services, combatant commands, and defense agencies like the speed and agility it affords.”

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Michael Tinsley of the U.S. (L) and Jamaica's Leford Green clear hurdles during the men's 400m hurdles in London in 2012.​

Days later, a handful of American Olympians arrived in Rio for the 2016 games, having used Halo’s electricity-generating headphones to train and prepare for competition. Which begs the question: does it work? “There’s quite a bit of evidence showing that brain stimulation over the motor cortex improves motor performance,” said Anna Wexler, a Ph.D. candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is closely studying tDCS devices, in particular the "do-it-yourself" communities. “Halo is on relatively solid scientific ground.”

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A team of U.S. Navy SEALs fires on insurgents from a rooftop in this April 2006 file photo in Ramadi, Iraq.​

The company’s CTO and co-founder Brett Wingeier, formerly an engineer and clinical scientist at NeuroPace with 25 patents to his name, explained the process as targeting a specific area of the brain that governs how we move our bodies. “A lot of high physical performance is actually due to your brain optimally controlling your body, and one thing that happens when you train is that your brain constantly itself,” Wingeier said. During a 20-minute session, Halo, he said “…accelerates the neurological improvements with training, so your brain gets a little better a little bit faster at controlling your body.” Research conducted in scientific laboratories backs up that claim.

Neuroscience

According to Wexler, the study of tDCS really got going around 2001. And the idea of brain stimulation has gone far beyond improving learning and athletic skills to look for answers in treating serious illnesses — epilepsy, Parkinson’s Disease, chronic pain and depression and anxiety. Among the 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies now completed, Wexler, who has done a lot of research on devices made at home (direct to consumer) by the so-called “do-it-yourself” (DIY) community, has written there is reason to think the therapy could be beneficial for such conditions. “There’s one side, the direct-to-consumer side, which is a little more iffy. And then there the laboratory studies, which are more controlled, which I am inclined to trust more,” Wexler said. “But there has been a lot of hype about studies with really small sample sizes.

DIY video for a homemade tDCS device:
 
If "tens of thousands" of Iraq/Afghanistan Veterans are incurring "brain injuries" when there is little or no combat going on in Iraq and Afghanistan , WTF is happening? Can we expand the concept into tens of thousands of Police Officers who probably witness more trauma in their 20 year average careers than Afghanistan veterans who serve a year in harms way? Why not diagnose tens of millions of teenagers who have witnessed more realistic trauma in movies and video games than most Veterans ever see?
 
Help for Families of Veterans w/ Traumatic Brain Injury...
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Traumatic Brain Injury and Veterans: Family Help
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is considered one of the signature injuries of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. TBI can be caused by several types of events, such as blows to the head.
PsychArmor, a non-profit dedicated to bridging the military-civilian divide by providing resources to help community members and others engage veterans, has free video courses on a variety of military-related issues. This section of PsychArmor's Invisible Wounds of War at Home caregiver and family video series focuses on TBI.

In the first TBI video, Heidi Kraft, a clinical psychologist, Navy veteran and PsychArmor's clinical director, helps caregivers and families answer the question "what is TBI?" She examines the three levels of TBI -- mild, moderate and severe -- and reveals some of the symptoms associated with them. Kraft talks about what clinicians are looking for when assessing a TBI and how they make a diagnosis.

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Shundra Johnson returns a wedding ring to her husband Coast Guard Lt. Sancho Johnson after his seated discus practice Navy’s wounded warrior training camp. Shundra is also her husband’s caregiver.​

But how does a TBI look? Kraft goes through a litany of symptoms including headaches, mood swings, ringing in the ears and anger in the second TBI video, "TBI: What Family Can Do," as well as how families can work through the symptoms with their veteran and get help.

Families might feel that their veteran has changed drastically because of the TBI or other injuries, Kraft notes. It's important for families to know that the changes that come from TBI are the result of an injury, not part of anything that person is doing on purpose, she says.

Traumatic Brain Injury and Veterans | Military.com
 

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