- TBI Act Reauthorization Update: Last week the US Congress passed legislation to reauthorize the Traumatic Brain Injury Act! The bill appears ready to be sent on to President Bush for his signature. In addition to authorizing ongoing CDC, NIH and HRSA TBI programs, the bill also authorizes a new study by the CDC and NIH in collaboration with the Dept. of Defense and the Dept. of Veterans Affairs to identify the incidence of brain injury among our veterans, especially veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Again, THANK YOU to all who took time to share their opinions with Congress regarding this legislation during the past year.
But how come the tail of the brain injury animal, war injuries, gets all of the research and attention? There are a million Subtle Brain Injuries© a year in the U.S. and perhaps, a few thousand in Iraq. What about all the civilians who have brain injuries? Isn’t it time we did some major research on those most likely to be disabled by brain injuries, those over 40 – especially women over 40, those with prior head injuries and those with co-morbid issues such as other neurologic or emotional disorders?
A Subtle Brain Injury is a complicated synergistic maze. Limiting our research to young jocks and war casualties is not going to enlighten us as to why some people have apparent full recoveries and others never get better. It is not an accident that there is consistently 10-15% of those with concussions who wind up with persistant post concussion syndrome. Let us start screaming louder so that the real pathology in those cases is understood, and treated.
