UCLA report link between PTSD and TBI which was already obvious

They're back! Stupid studies that have been done to death!

Why is it the smarter people are the more they avoid the obvious? TBI is not something you "catch" but it is always something that happens to you that could very well have killed you.

Right now we're talking about combat, PTSD and the link to TBI. Most of the time it is caused by a bomb blast along with every other horrific thing that happens when they blow up. So how is it that these really smart people say this?

The reasons for this correlation are unknown.

An exploding bomb is pretty traumatic and the force can "hurt a brain" of any human in the area.

PTSD comes after trauma and a lot of these events are violent in nature. PTSD does not cause TBI and TBI does not cause PTSD but the event itself causes both. It is obvious that the two, would in fact, go together!

UCLA scientists report link between traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder
15/02/2012

By Stuart Wolpert - UCLA life scientists and their colleagues have provided the first evidence of a causal link between traumatic brain injury and an increased susceptibility to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Their new study, published Feb. 15 in the in the journal Biological Psychology, also suggests that people who suffer even a mild traumatic brain injury are more likely to develop an anxiety disorder and should take precautions to avoid stressful situations for at least some period of time.

The motivation behind the study, which was conducted in rats, was the observed correlation of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, and PTSD, particularly in military veterans returning from service overseas, said Michael Fanselow, a UCLA professor of psychology and the senior author of the study.

The reasons for this correlation are unknown. It could be simply that the events that cause brain injury are also very frightening and that the link between TBI and PTSD could be merely incidental. Fanselow and his colleagues, however, hypothesized that the two "could be linked in a more mechanistic way."
read more here

Here are two reports from my old blog going back to 2007!

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2007

TBI kills brain cells. Results worse than thought
Scientists: TBI from war worse than thought

By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Monday Sep 24, 2007 11:51:12 EDT

Scientists trying to understand traumatic brain injury from bomb blasts are finding the wound more insidious than they once thought.

They find that even when there are no outward signs of injury from the blast, cells deep within the brain can be altered, their metabolism changed, causing them to die, said Geoff Ling, an advance-research scientist with the Pentagon.

The new findings are the result of blast experiments in recent years on animals, followed by microscopic examination of brain tissue. The findings could mean that the number of brain-injured soldiers and Marines — many of whom appear unhurt after exposure to a blast — may be far greater than reported, said Ibolja Cernak, a scientist with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

This cellular death leads to symptoms that may not surface for months or years, Cernak said. The symptoms can include memory deficit, headaches, vertigo, anxiety and apathy or lethargy.

“These soldiers could have hidden injuries with long-term consequences,” he said.

Physicians and scientists are calling TBI the “signature wound” of the Iraq war because of its increasing prevalence among troops.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2007

TBI and the thousands fighting silent war to live
Thousands of troops coping with brain damage, uncertain futures
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
AP Medical Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. --The war in Iraq is not over, but one legacy is already here in this city and others across America: an epidemic of brain-damaged soldiers.

Thousands of troops have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, or TBI. These blast-caused head injuries are so different from the ones doctors are used to seeing from falls and car crashes that treating them is as much faith as it is science.

"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,'" said Sandy Schneider, director of Vanderbilt University's brain injury rehabilitation program.

Doctors also are realizing that symptoms overlap with post-traumatic stress disorder, and that both must be treated. Odd as it may seem, brain injury can protect against PTSD by blurring awareness of what happened.

But as memory improves, emotional problems can emerge: One of the first "graduates" of Vanderbilt's program committed suicide three weeks later.

"Of all the ones here, he would not have been the one we would have thought," Schneider said. "They called him the Michelangelo of Fort Campbell" - a guy who planned to go to art school.