Comparison of Physical Therapy and Physician Pathways for Employees with Recent Onset Musculoskeletal Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Life expectancy of the U.S. population will continue to rise, increasing the workforce demands in the treatment of musculoskeletal pathologies.

Recognizing occupational illnesses and injuries.

Given the burden of occupational illnesses and injuries in the United States, family physicians should understand the role workplace exposures may play in patients' chief concerns. Incorporating employment screening questions into patients' intake questionnaires is an efficient means of identifying potential occupational causes of symptoms. Recommended questions include what kind of job patients have; whether their symptoms are worse at work; whether they are or have been exposed to dust, fumes, chemicals, radiation, or loud noise; and whether they think their health problems may be related to their work.

Separating deployment-related traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder in veterans: preliminary findings from the Veterans Affairs traumatic brain injury screening program.

Objective: Traumatic brain injury in returning Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans has been the subject of numerous articles by the popular press and congressional inquires. Recent research has questioned the accuracy of the traumatic brain injury diagnosis in veterans with depression and/or posttraumatic stress disorder and the validity of the Veterans Affairs traumatic brain injury screening tool to identify traumatic brain injury in returning combat veterans.

Design: Medical records of all combat veterans in the Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System who both screened positive for traumatic brain injury and received clinical evaluation for traumatic brain injury during the first year of the Veterans Affairs traumatic brain injury screening program were reviewed to explore the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder and self-reported symptoms attributed to deployment-related traumatic brain injury.