It’s time to end the war at home for troops with traumatic brain injuries
Henry Mahncke@socialprimate / 1:03 PM EDT•October 7, 2021
Henry Mahncke has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCSF and is the CEO of Posit Science, developers of the BrainHQ brain training program.
The war is over now. Our troops have come home, many after years of service across multiple tours of duty. And as they return, their next phase of service begins — to their families, where they are parents to children and caregivers to parents, and to their communities, where they will return to school or launch new careers.
But for far too many, the battle continues. Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) — considered to be the signature injury of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars — were sustained by more than 430,000 U.S. service members. The most common type of TBI is the somewhat misleadingly named “mild” TBI (mTBI, or concussion), affecting more than 82% of service members diagnosed with TBIs.
Many were able to recover from those injuries, but thousands are plagued by persistent cognitive issues affecting speed, attention and memory — years after their injury — that make it challenging to return to work, school and family roles. People with a history of TBI are also at higher risk for complications from other conditions, notably pre-dementia and dementia.
https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/07/its-time-to-end-the-war-at-home-for-troops-with-traumatic-brain-injuries/
