Brain Damage Newsroom

Brain-Injured Soldiers Challenge U.S. Medical System

The thousands of American troops with blast-related traumatic brain injury (TBI) are proving a challenge for the U.S. medical system, according to the Associated Press.

Blast-related brain injuries are markedly different from brain injuries caused by falls and car crashes.

"I've been in the field for 20-plus years dealing with TBI. I have a very experienced staff. And they're saying to me, 'We're seeing things we've never seen before,'" Sandy Schneider, director of Vanderbilt University's brain injury rehabilitation program, told the AP.

Doctors are learning that symptoms of blast-related TBI often overlap with post-traumatic stress disorder and both conditions must be treated.

The exact number of U.S. troops with blast-related TBI isn't known, but the numbers are straining the resources of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the AP reported.

About one-fifth of troops with mild TBI, and nearly all of those with moderate or severe TBI, will have prolonged or lifelong symptoms requiring continuing care, according to the U.S. military.