General: Most Soldiers With TBI HealMarch 05, 2009
Army News Service
WASHINGTON - Mild traumatic brain injury, also known as a concussion, affects from 10 to 20 percent of service members returning from combat deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan.
During a roundtable discussion March 4, at the Pentagon as part of "Brain Injury Awareness Month," Brig. Gen. Loree K Sutton, director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, said more than 90 percent of servicemembers with TBI have concussions and recovery quickly.
"I can't stress this enough," Sutton said. "The vast majority of people with TBI will get better. Certainly the moderate or more severe cases will take longer to recover, but it is also important to recognize this is not an individual concern alone. That's where family comes in, the unit comes in, and the community comes in."
Mild TBI -- concussions -- are the result of a hit or blow to the head and can result in disorientation, headaches, dizziness, balance difficulties, ringing in the ears, blurred vision, and memory gaps. The Army and other services screen for concussions with a tool called the Military Acute Concussion Evaluation. The tool, recently supported by the Institutes of Medicine, was first released in August 2006.
The military also uses the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metric, or ANAM, to set baselines for servicemembers before deployment. The tool establishes a baseline for a Soldier's reaction time, their short-term memory and other cognitive skills and the results can be used by providers as another critical piece of information for the evaluation and management of injured servicemembers, Sutton said.
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