When I was living in Menlo Park, California in the years 2011-2015, I got to be pals with an affluent, patriotic man who was a benefactor the VA hospitals in Palo Alto and Menlo Park. He introduced me to a psychiatrist with whom I got to be pals, and on a few occasions I was given permission to accompany him when he visited his patients.
By far the most common injury I saw was what neurologists call a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). According to the National Institutes of Health (Occupation and Risk of Traumatic Brain Injury in the Millennium Cohort Study) rom 2000 to 2021, an estimated 449,026 active-duty U.S. service members experienced a TBI. These injuries were often caused by combat-related incidents, such as explosive blasts, and are considered a “signature injury” of post-9/11 conflicts.
The vast majority of these injuries are considered mild, but a “mild” diagnosis is cold comfort for those suffering from the syndrome and their family members, as mild symptoms include:
Headache
Dizziness
Nausea and vomiting
Fatigue
Sensitivity to light or noise
Blurred or double vision
Balance problems
Cognitive: Confusion or difficulty concentrating, memory loss or problems with recall, Difficulty with attention or problem-solving, and slowed thinking or processing speed.
Emotional: Irritability or mood swings, anxiety or depression, difficulty sleeping, and changes in appetite.
Other: Ringing in the ears, loss of consciousness (briefly), and seizures (rare).
The following 2023 news segment presents a pretty good overview of the epidemic. Note that, as of this posting, it has only received 235 views. https://www.youtube.com/watch
Though I haven’t analyzed it, I suspect that the TBI epidemic is related to the epidemic of suicide among U.S. service personnel. According to the 2021 Brown University Cost of War Project, since 2001, 30,000 active-duty personnel and veterans of post-9/11 conflicts have died by suicide as of June 2021.
Most of the patients I visited had been diagnosed with moderate to severe TBI, and were profoundly debilitated. A remarkable feature of many severe cases of TBI is that they were not caused by a penetrating object such as shrapnel or a gunshot, but by the shockwave generated by a roadside bomb.
https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/450000-us-soldiers-diagnosed-with?
