On July 2^nd, 2011 Marine Corps Times published an article about a new advanced high-tech scanner which would provide medical professionals with detailed pictures of brain activity which could aid in the diagnosis of Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI), which until now have been an often-invisible war wound.

The magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner works by recording the electrical activity in the brain tissue. Areas of abnormal low-frequency waves are a telltale sign of injured brain tissue and can be detected by the MEG scanner. Many of these areas go unobserved by more conventional scanning machines such as MRIs and CT scanners.

The original study included 55 patients, both civilian and military with mild to moderate TBIs which were a result of either concussions or due to the explosion of an Improvised Exploding Device (IED). Some of these patients had sought medical help before but no injury was found using MRIs and CTs.

ingxiong Huang, a professor and associate director of the University of California, San Diego’s MEG Radiology Imaging Laboratory posed a question that could forever change the way we look at TBIs. He asked “Can we make the ‘invisible’ injury visible? … Being able to see the injury is really a key start to help understand how the brain recovers from TBI. The treatment and diagnosis of TBI and PTSD may be very different.”

For more information see:

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2011/07/marine-scanner-traumatic-brain-injury-070211/

By ERIC NEWHOUSE • Great Falls Tribune

U.S. Reps. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., and Mike Thompson, D-Calif., introduced legislation Thursday in the House that would require a face-to-face mental health screening for all soldiers before they are deployed on a combat mission, after their tour and every six months for two years following their return.

The bill is a companion measure to legislation introduced in the Senate by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., last month.

“Rehberg’s support on this is critical,” said Matt Kuntz, director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “It’s really wonderful that he’s come on board with this.”

The measure came about because there currently is no psychological baseline for troops heading into conflict, though many service members returning from combat are asked to fill out questionnaires about their mental health.

“I have fought for PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) treatment funding, but money can only solve part of the problem,” Rehberg said. “Soldiers need in-person treatment to ensure that no one falls through the cracks.”

At least one in five new veterans are experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression, Thompson said, there isn’t a system in place nationally that adequately can address those issues.

“This legislation will fill this void,” he said.”It is a practical solution and has already been successfully tested in the field. We owe it to our brave men and women serving our country to make sure that they get the services they have earned.”

The proposed Post-Deployment Health Assessment Act of 2009 creates new requirements for identification of PTSD among service members.

Under the act, a service member would be interviewed prior to deployment in order to establish a baseline to measure change upon return from combat. By requiring these interviews to be timely and personal, the bill’s sponsors believe the likelihood of identifying PTSD later is dramatically increased.

“This legislation’s intensive face-to-face screening program will provide the military with a powerful tool to help our injured heroes get help for their post-traumatic stress injuries,” Kuntz said. “Congressman Rehberg’s leadership is critical because he is in position to build a bipartisan coalition to help stop our military’s suicide epidemic.”

Diagnosis is critical in addressing PTSD said Jed Link, Rehberg’s communications director.

“Congressman Rehberg has fought to provide treatment for vets with PTSD, but if they don’t know they have the disorder, if they haven’t been diagnosed, it won’t do any good,” Link said. “So this legislation is an important step forward in that process.”

By ERIC NEWHOUSE • Great Falls Tribune

SALT LAKE CITY — At a recent mental health conference in the Salt Palace, a Utah National Guardsman described how he finally learned to sleep again.

It’s a simple technique that the Veterans Administration has tested in Salt Lake City and found effective for both sleep disorders and for post-traumatic stress disorder.

“When they told me about ‘mind-body bridging,’ I thought they were blowing smoke because it was so simple,” Sgt. 1st Class Kip Day of Salt Lake City said last week.

“But it works,” he added.

The system developed by Dr. Stanley Block and described in his book, “Come To Your Senses,” involves listening, touching, seeing and smelling your environment instead of wrestling with your thoughts.

“That’s a grounding technique that’s common to a number of therapies,” noted Steve Allen, a VA psychologist in Salt Lake.

Day said he returned from an intense tour of duty in Iraq in 2003 and had severe nightmares every night for the next six years.

“Drugs didn’t work for me,” he said. “They just made my dreams worse.

“But the first night I tried the program, I began listening to the clock in my room as a way to go to sleep,” said Day. “That very first night, I slept and didn’t dream — which was amazing to me.

“The next night, I had a funny dream and woke up laughing,” Day said. “I even woke my wife up with my laughter.”

To test whether the therapy was effective, the VA took 60 vets with sleep disorders, many of whom also had symptoms of PTSD, and broke them into two random groups, said Rich Landward, a licensed clinical social worker for the VA in Salt Lake City.

One group received four sessions of sleep hygiene: medical advice on what to do to sleep better, things like not drinking caffeine in the evening or trying to sleep in front of a television set.

“There was some sleep improvement with this group, but not nearly as much as the bridging the mind and body group,” Landward said.

“We told them to tune into their senses — sight, sound, hearing, smell, touch,” Landward said. “We told them to listen to a fan at bedtime or concentrate on feeling the sheets.