Chronic frontal neurobehavioural symptoms in combat-deployed military personnel with and without a history of blast-related mild traumatic brain injury.
Carolyn M Parsey, Hyun Jin Kang, Jessica C Eaton and 4 others
PMID 37165638WHAT IT FOUND
At 5 years, blast-related mild TBI military personnel self-reported clinically elevated overall frontal behavior symptoms and executive dysfunction symptoms, and higher disinhibition and apathy ratings than combat controls without TBI or blast.
Key findings
01At Year 5, the blast mild TBI group had clinically elevated FrSBe total and executive dysfunction T-scores, while apathy was just below the clinical threshold.
02At Year 5, the blast mild TBI group reported significantly higher FrSBe total and subscale scores than the non-blast control group.
03From Year 1 to Year 5, the blast mild TBI group showed a significant increase in disinhibition, and a non-significant trend for total symptoms.
STILL TO COME
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What it does not show
This is a secondary observational analysis, so it cannot show that blast mild TBI caused the symptom differences. The outcome was self-report on one scale, the FrSBe, and the authors note it did not separately capture irritability, a common mild TBI symptom. Year 1 analyses were exploratory and small: 124 participants completed the measure, 81 were in the primary groups, and 59 had both Year 1 and Year 5 data. The sample was described as predominantly Non-Hispanic White males, so results may not generalize to other racial or ethnic groups. The study did not address PTSD, depression, or other comorbid conditions that could influence behavioral symptom ratings. Participants with prior TBI or psychiatric diagnosis were excluded, which may not reflect the broader population of military personnel with mild TBI. No adjustments were made for multiple comparisons.
Declared interests
The article text does not report a conflicts-of-interest statement. The supplied publication types list NIH extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that blast mild TBI caused these symptoms. It is an observational self-report study, and the authors did not test causal mechanisms or account for PTSD and depression.