Postconcussive Symptoms and PTSD in Veterans

Veterans with a history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) are reporting postconcussive symptoms in addition to experiencing postdeployment physical and emotional comorbidities. The Veterans Health Administration has mandated specialized evaluation and treatment for veterans with a history of mTBI and has suggested widespread use of the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI) as a measure of postconcussive symptoms. A study published in a recent issue of Rehabilitation Psychology evaluated the NSI’s factor structure and assessed the impact of posttraumatic stress (PTS) on the scale at the item and factor levels. Five hundred twenty-nine charts of returning veterans who screened positive for traumatic brain injury were reviewed, and 345 who met criteria for mTBI were included in the study. The study results were examined and the resulting factor analysis on the NSI revealed a difficult-to-interpret factor structure that was inconsistent with the results of civilian studies. PTS explained 5%–38% of the variance in individual postconcussive symptoms, and after controlling for this variance, the factor structure more closely paralleled findings from the civilian literature. The authors conclude that posttraumatic stress is an important variable to account for when evaluating PCSx in veterans. The authors also discuss research and clinical implications for the measurement and interpretation of self-reported postconcussive symptoms.

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God bless those who have suffered from the tragic events at Fort Hood and let’s pray for those family and friends who have lost their loved ones.

If anyone out there has friends or family who serve or have served this great nation please inform them of a free download available from Prescription Audio. The download is sound therapy for PTSD and is currently used within the VA and US Army hospitals to aid in the treatment of PTSD, insomnia, high stress and compassion fatigue. here is the link to the free download http://cli.gs/thtvHq

God bless our troops