VA to test all combat vets for brain injury - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

VA to test all combat vets for brain injury

All Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans receiving veterans’ medical care will be screened for hidden traumatic brain injuries beginning this spring, Department of Veterans Affairs officials announced Tuesday.

All 155 medical centers will participate in screening every patient who served in the combat zones, according to a statement.

Additionally, VA officials said they are creating a panel of outside experts to review how the VA detects and treats what medical experts say has become the signature wound of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts: brain injuries that may not be readily apparent.

Mandatory training is already under way for all VA health care professionals in diagnosing traumatic brain injuries.

The VA has been a recognized leader in treating brain injuries and rehabilitating brain-injured veterans, but it is not clear that the department has been fully prepared for the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, where explosions, especially from roadside bombs, have put large numbers of troops at risk for brain injuries that are not immediately visible and can be difficult to diagnose.

VA officials said traumatic brain injury can be caused without any visible injuries when explosives jar the brain inside the skull. Symptoms can range from headaches, irritability and sleep disorders to memory problems and depression.

In a statement, Secretary of Veterans Affairs R. James Nicholson said the VA is adapting. “VA is a nationally recognized leader in health care, and our system is dynamic. We are constantly striving to improve the care we provide to our veterans,” Nicholson said.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee member, is not impressed. “My real worry is that this administration continues to be slow to react to these problems and rarely, if ever, takes proactive measures to stop the many problems before they even begin,” Murray said.

“From sending our troops to war without the critical armor they need to protect themselves, to housing them in squalor at Walter Reed as we heard about a week ago, to leaving them to fend for themselves when they need mental health care, this administration is utterly failing our service members, our veterans, and all of their families.”

Traumatic brain injury is “an unseen wound, and often, too often, it is misdiagnosed,” Murray said. Unless a service member is directly involved in a roadside bomb incident and is bleeding, there may be no direct evidence they were involved in an explosion. But they can suffer injuries even if they were two or three vehicles behind the one hit by the explosion, she said, predicting the final number of people suffering from traumatic brain injuries will be greater than the 10 percent of all Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans now estimated.