Iraq soldiers suffer both brain injury consequences and posttraumatical stress

Doctors could be mistaken saying that traumatic brain injury – one of Iraq’s signatures – was the reason of some common symptoms.

Photo: Iraq soldiers suffer both brain injury consequences and posttraumatical stress

A new study showed that depression and stress could play significant role.

Thousands of soldiers returning from the war suffer memory loss, headaches, sleeplessness, etc. But it’s hard to separate symptoms of the physical and psychic diseases.

The researchers found that brain injury made traumatic stress more likely. The only one symptom –headache- was tied to brain injury.

Doctors who believe the study look optimistic. A good treatment of depressions and stress could be provided to soldiers.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. It is a severe and ongoing emotional reaction to an extreme psychological trauma. This stressor may involve someone's actual death or a threat to the patient's or someone else's life, serious physical injury, or threat to physical and/or psychological integrity, to a degree that usual psychological defenses are incapable of coping. PTSD is a condition distinct from Traumatic stress, which is a similar condition, but of less intensity and duration. The condition has also been known historically or colloquially as shell shock, traumatic war neurosis, or post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS).