Traumatized soldiers returning from America’s wars overseas might have a brighter and healthier future waiting for them.
With U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, new research could aid physicians in better diagnosing and helping veterans who have suffered head traumas, as well as manage their depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
U researchers who participated in a new study from the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma found that ex-political detainees who suffered from head trauma caused by torture have increased symptoms of depression and other emotional issues.
One in five U.S. veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan is believed to have PTSD or traumatic brain injuries. The study suggests there is physical proof that their troubles are real.
The U study examined Vietnamese political detainees who fought on the side of the United States during the Vietnam War. After the war, they were sent back to re-education camps, where they were tortured. The study focused on why, after so many years, these detainees still felt the effects of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, said Perry Renshaw, co-author of the study and a U professor of psychiatry. Researchers in the study connected the reason for these disorders with changes in the brain caused by head trauma.
“We focused specifically on changes substantial to regions of the brain which seem to be responsible for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder,” Renshaw said. “Patterns found in the brain could be a useful connection.”
The U’s portion of the study involved scanning and deciphering images of the brain. Before this study, there had been no previous images related to head traumas, Renshaw said. From these images, researchers found specific patterns of change in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain caused by head injuries.
These areas of the brain play a major role in emotions and recollection of memories. Because of this, researchers were not surprised that there was a correlation between these areas of the brain and an increase of symptoms, Renshaw said.
Future research will focus on helping those soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have suffered from head trauma. Researchers are interested in whether these same patterns cause such psychiatric disorders, Renshaw said. To better help the returning soldiers, it is important for the researchers to have an understanding of these changes and how they affect depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, Renshaw said.
“You could have a head injury, come back and get better, or you could come back and never get back to where you were before,” Renshaw said.
Researchers’ findings were published in the November 2009 archives of General Psychiatry.
[email protected]
The Associated Press
contributed to
this article.