Scanning invisible damage of PTSD, brain blasts

Whenever you hear anyone complain about money being spent taking care of our veterans, remind them of something. Anything done for them is done for the benefit of the rest of us as well.

What scientist study, really study with new technology not available when PTSD research first began, will end up helping all civilians in their own lives.

If you doubt this then think about what happens when traumatic events strike. Crisis teams arrive to be able to address these horrific events right after they happen so that no one has to walk away with no one to talk to. We have to face the fact that trauma survivors will return to family and friends with absolutely no understanding of this and unable to help. Worse, they may make things worse because of what they do not know. Trauma is abnormal but their reactions to it is what normal humans do.

The only objection we should have when it comes to doing this type of research is when they repeat studies they've already done over the years. This type of study is new and this technology is vital to addressing the "realness" of PTSD and TBI.

Scanning invisible damage of PTSD, brain blasts
By LAURAN NEERGAARD (AP) – 1 hour ago

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

It's work that one day may allow far 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," explains 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 U.S. 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, or TBIs — most that don't involve open wounds but hidden damage caused by explosion's pressure wave.

Many of those TBIs 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's little time between assaults.

"My brain has been rattled," is how a recently retired Marine whom Hayes identifies only as Sgt. N described the 50 to 60 explosions he estimates he felt while part of an ordnance disposal unit.

Hayes studied the man in a new way, tracking how water flows through tiny, celery stalk-like nerve fibers in his brain — and found otherwise undetectable evidence that those fibers were damaged in a brain region that explained his memory problems and confusion.

Her lab performed MRI scans while patients either tried to suppress their negative memories, or followed PTSD therapy and changed how they thought about their trauma. That fear-processing region quickly cooled down when people followed the PTSD therapy.

It's work that has implications far beyond the military: About a quarter of a million Americans will develop PTSD at some point in their lives. Anyone can develop it after a terrifying experience, from a car accident or hurricane to rape or child abuse.

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Scanning invisible damage of PTSD, brain blasts