BrainBlog

An interesting feature article in tomorrow's New York Times Sunday Magazine : The Sergeant Lost Within By DANIEL BERGNER Published: May 25, 2008 "Roadside bombs have caused hundreds of dire brain injuries to soldiers in Iraq. One of them is Shurvon Phillip, and a team of specialists has worked avidly trying to reach him." A good deal of the article deals with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) . [ ... Read the full article ... ]

From The New York Times website: Screening for Brain Injury Is Set for Illinois Veterans By LIBBY SANDER Published: July 4, 2007 CHICAGO, July 3 — Frustrated with the federal government’s response to the mental health needs of soldiers, Illinois officials announced on Tuesday that members of the state’s National Guard would be routinely screened for traumatic brain injuries after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. The mandatory program, which appears to be the first in the nation, will also offer the screening to other veterans in the state and will include a 24-hour hot line providing psychological counseling to veterans of all military branches. The program is expected to cost $10.5 million a year. “It’s been shown that the federal government simply was not prepared to deal with the number of war injured coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Tammy Duckworth, the director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs and a former Blackhawk helicopter pilot who lost both legs on...

From the June 2007 APA Monitor : A long road back With so many service members affected by traumatic brain injuries, neuropsychologists are ramping up diagnosis and treatment By Christopher Munsey Monitor staff Print version: page 34 Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been called the "signature injury" of the Iraq war. Most commonly, the injuries are caused by improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, the makeshift bombs insurgents frequently use to attack U.S. forces. Even if soldiers are not directly hit, the shockwaves of these explosions can violently shake their brains or send shrapnel into their helmets. The result is often an injury that's much like a boxer hit with a knock-out punch. Thanks to excellent medical care and advanced body armor, service members are surviving injuries that would have killed them in previous wars. But with that survival often comes brain damage, a decrease in cognitive abilities and a lessening of emotional self-regulation. Psychologists, par...