Sensory functions and their relation to balance metrics: a secondary analysis of the LIMBIC-CENC multicenter cohort.

Introduction: Among patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), balance problems often persist alongside hearing and vision impairments that lead to poorer outcomes of functional independence. As such, the ability to regain premorbid independent gait may be dictated by the level of sensory acuity or processing decrements that are shown following TBI assessment. This study explores the relationships between standardized sensory acuity and processing outcomes to postural balance and gait speed.

Long-term resting EEG correlates of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury and loss of consciousness: alterations in alpha-beta power.

Objective: Long-term changes to EEG spectra after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI, i.e., concussion) have been reported; however, the role of injury characteristics in long-term EEG changes is unclear.

Randomized trial of rTMS in traumatic brain injury: improved subjective neurobehavioral symptoms and increases in EEG delta activity.

Primary Objective: While repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has shown efficacy for cognitive difficulties accompanying depression, it is unknown if it can improve cognition in persons with traumatic brain injury.

Research Design: Using a sham-controlled crossover design, we tested the capacity of high frequency rTMS of the prefrontal cortex to improve neuropsychological performance in attention, learning and memory, and executive function.

Methods: Twenty-six participants with cognitive complaints and a history of mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injury were randomly assigned to receive first either active or sham 10 Hz stimulation for 20 minutes (1200 pulses) per session for five consecutive days.

Is balance performance reduced after mild traumatic brain injury?: Interim analysis from chronic effects of neurotrauma consortium (CENC) multi-centre study.

Objectives: Determine if mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) history is associated with balance disturbances.

Setting: Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (CENC) centres.

Participants: The CENC multi-centre study enrols post-9/11 era Service Members and Veterans with combat exposure.

Evaluating the Contribution of EEG Power Profiles to Characterize and Discriminate Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Factors in a Combat-Exposed Population.

This study investigated the use of resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) data to help differentiate posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom factors. The sample, 147 combat-exposed OIF/OEF (Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom) Veterans and service members, was a polytrauma population with variable PTSD and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) diagnoses. Participants completed the PTSD Checklist (PCL) and resting-state EEG was assessed for 10 minutes, with eyes closed.

Rapid-Response Impulsivity Predicts Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptomatology at 1-Year Follow-Up in Blast-Exposed Service Members.

Objective: To determine if elevated rapid-response impulsivity after blast exposure (as a putative marker of ventral prefrontal cortex [vPFC] damage) is predictive of future elevated affective symptomatology in blast-exposed service members.

Design: Longitudinal design with neurocognitive testing at initial assessment and 1-year follow-up assessment of psychiatric symptomatology by telephone interview.

Setting: Veterans Administration medical centers and postdeployment assessment centers at military bases.

Symptom Trajectories After Military Blast Exposure and the Influence of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

Background: Blast-related mild traumatic brain injury (blast mTBI) is a signature wound of recent US military conflicts in the Middle East, but the relatedness of postconcussive symptoms (PCS) to the blast mTBI is unclear, and longitudinal symptom data are sparse.

Objectives: To characterize postdeployment symptom levels and trajectories and to determine relationship to blast mTBI.

Methods: A total of 216 participants within 2 years of blast exposure during deployment underwent structured interviews or algorithmic questionnaires for blast mTBI.

Distinction in EEG slow oscillations between chronic mild traumatic brain injury and PTSD.

Spectral information from resting state EEG is altered in acute mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and in disorders of consciousness, but there is disagreement about whether mTBI can elicit long term changes in the spectral profile. Even when identified, any long-term changes attributed to TBI can be confounded by psychiatric comorbidities such as PTSD, particularly for combat-related mTBI where postdeployment distress is commonplace. To address this question, we measured spectral power during the resting state in a large sample of service members and Veterans varying in mTBI history and active PTSD diagnosis but matched for having had combat blast exposure.

Characterizing effects of mild traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder on balance impairments in blast-exposed servicemembers and Veterans using computerized posturography.

The high rate of blast exposures experienced by U.S. servicemembers (SMs) during the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan has resulted in frequent combat-related mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs).

Insomnia symptoms and behavioural health symptoms in veterans 1 year after traumatic brain injury.

Objective: Insomnia and behavioural health symptoms 1 year after traumatic brain injury (TBI) were examined in a clinical sample representative of veterans who received inpatient treatment for TBI-related issues within the Veterans Health Administration.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional sub-study (n = 112) of the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Centres' traumatic brain injury model system programme. Prevalence estimates of insomnia, depression, general anxiety, nightmares, headache and substance use, stratified by injury severity, were derived.

Diagnostic accuracy of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist in blast-exposed military personnel.

Researchers often extrapolate posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) status from PTSD Checklist (PCL) data. When doing so, cut points should be based on samples with similar characteristics. This study assessed PCL diagnostic accuracy and postconcussive symptom levels within 106 Iraq/Afghanistan war Veterans and servicemembers with recent blast exposure.

Factor analysis of persistent postconcussive symptoms within a military sample with blast exposure.

Objective: To determine the factor structure of persistent postconcussive syndrome symptoms in a blast-exposed military sample and validate factors against objective and symptom measures.

Setting: Veterans Affairs medical center and military bases.

Participants: One hundred eighty-one service members and veterans with at least 1 significant exposure to blast during deployment within the 2 years prior to study enrollment.

Randomized, Sham-Controlled, Feasibility Trial of Hyperbaric Oxygen for Service Members With Postconcussion Syndrome: Cognitive and Psychomotor Outcomes 1 Week Postintervention.

Background Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and residual postconcussion syndrome (PCS) are common among combatants of the recent military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) is a proposed treatment but has not been rigorously studied for this condition. Objectives In a secondary analysis, examine for possible effects on psychomotor (balance and fine motor) and cognitive performance 1 week after an HBO2 intervention in service members with PCS after mTBI.

Hyperbaric oxygen for blast-related postconcussion syndrome: three-month outcomes.

Objective: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and postconcussion syndrome (PCS) are common among military combatants. Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2 ) is a proposed treatment for these conditions, but it has not been rigorously studied. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of HBO2 by 3 months post compression at 2 commonly employed dosing levels to treat PCS; whether specific subgroups may have benefited; and if no overall effect was found, whether benefit is masked by other conditions.

Sensorintegrative dysfunction underlying vestibular disorders after traumatic brain injury: a review.

Vestibular symptoms are persistent and problematic sequelae of blast exposure. Several lines of evidence suggest that these symptoms often stem from injury to the central nervous system. Current methods of assessing the vestibular system have described vestibular deficits that follow traumatic brain injury and differentiate blunt and blast trauma but have not examined the full range of vestibular functions that depend on the cerebral structures above the midbrain.