The Effects of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Combined Mild Traumatic Brain Injury/Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder on Returning Veterans.
J Neurotrauma
; 32(13): 956-66, 2015 Jul 01.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-25350012
ABSTRACT
United States veterans of the Iraqi (Operation Iraqi Freedom [OIF]) and Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom [OEF]) conflicts have frequently returned from deployment after sustaining mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and enduring stressful events resulting in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A large number of returning service members have been diagnosed with both a history of mTBI and current PTSD. Substantial literature exists on the neuropsychological factors associated with mTBI and PTSD occurring separately; far less research has explored the combined effects of PTSD and mTBI. The current study employed neuropsychological and psychological measures in a sample of 251 OIF/OEF veterans to determine whether participants with a history of mTBI and current PTSD (mTBI+PTSD) have poorer cognitive and psychological outcomes than participants with mTBI only (mTBI-o), PTSD only (PTSD-o), or veteran controls (VC), when groups are comparable on intelligence quotient, education, and age. The mTBI+PTSD group performed more poorly than VC, mTBI-o, and PTSD-o groups on several neuropsychological measures. Effect size comparisons suggest small deleterious effects for mTBI-o on measures of processing speed and visual attention and small effects for PTSD-o on measures of verbal memory, with moderate effects for mTBI+PTSD on the same variables. Additionally, the mTBI+PTSD group was significantly more psychologically distressed than the PTSD-o group, and PTSD-o group was more distressed than VC and mTBI-o groups. These findings suggest that veterans with mTBI+PTSD perform significantly lower on neuropsychological and psychiatric measures than veterans with mTBI-o or PTSD-o. The results also raise the possibility of mild but persisting cognitive changes following mTBI sustained during deployment.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Transtornos de Estresse Pós-Traumáticos
/
Veteranos
/
Lesões Encefálicas
/
Transtornos Cognitivos
Limite:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
País como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2015
Tipo de documento:
Article