Scans show PTSD effects
By Lauran Neergaard
Associated Press / November 10, 2009

WASHINGTON - Powerful scans are letting doctors watch just how the brain changes in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and concussionlike brain injuries, signature damage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

It is work that one day may allow for easier diagnosis for patients - civilian or military - who today struggle to get help for these largely invisible disorders. For now it brings a powerful message: Problems too often shrugged off as “just in your head’’ in fact do have physical signs, now that scientists are learning where and how to look for them.

“There’s something different in your brain,’’ said Dr. Jasmeet Pannu Hayes of Boston University, who is helping to lead that research at the Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD. “Just putting a real physical marker there, saying that this is a real thing, encourages more people to seek care.’’

Up to one in five US veterans from the long-running combat in Iraq and Afghanistan is thought to have symptoms of PTSD. An equal number are believed to have suffered traumatic brain injuries, most that do not involve open wounds but hidden damage caused by explosion’s pressure wave.

Many of those brain injuries are considered similar to a concussion, but because symptoms may not be apparent immediately, many soldiers are exposed multiple times, despite evidence from the sports world that damage can add up, especially if there is little time between assaults.


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