Jones N, Fear NT, Rona RJ, Fertout M, Thandi G, Wessely S, Greenberg N. Brain Inj. 2014; 28(7): 896-899.
Affiliation
King's Centre for Military Health and Academic Centre for Defence Mental Health, Academic Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Weston Education Centre , London , UK.
INTRODUCTION: mTBI has been termed the 'signature injury' of recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most mTBI research uses retrospective accounts of exposure and point of injury symptoms; mTBI is reportedly less common among UK than US Forces.
METHODS: This study examined the rate of mTBI exposure and symptoms in 1363 UK military personnel deployed in Afghanistan in 2011 using a self-report questionnaire. Data were collected in the operational location during the 5th month of a 6-month deployment. Personnel reported injuries and symptoms related to six events including fragmentation, blast, bullet, fall, motor vehicle accident and 'other' exposure.
RESULTS: Eighty (5.9%) reported at least one potential mTBI exposure during the current deployment and 1.6% (n = 22) reported injury and one or more mTBI symptoms (1 year incidence rate = 3.2%). Higher PTSD symptom scores were significantly associated with reporting potential mTBI (p ≤ 0.001) and mTBI with symptoms (p ≤ 0.001).
CONCLUSION: This study used contemporaneous data gathered in the deployed location which are subject to less memory distortion than studies using post-deployment recall. The incidence of mTBI was substantially lower than those reported in both US and UK post-deployment studies which is consistent with inflated reporting of symptoms when measured post-deployment.