[NYTr] Army Starts pre-Deployment Brain Testing for Iraq-Bound Troops

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[This story is almost funny.  The Army claims their "brain tests" will
give them a base-line that will allow them to be more
"pro-active" (whatever that means in this context) about helping
disabled combat vets. It's too bad they aren't testing people who are
functional enough to shun military service entirely. It might give
them a whole new picture and allow them to refuse benefits much more
widely if they had data showing how many of these people are brain
damaged to begin with.-NY Transfer]

AP via Yahoo - Sep 19, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070919/ap_on_re_us/army_brain_tests

Army conducts brain tests on soldiers

By KRISTIN M. HALL
Associated Press Writer

Before they leave for Iraq, thousands of troops with the 101st Airborne
Division line up at laptop computers to take a test: basic math,
matching numbers and symbols, and identifying patterns. They press a
button quickly to measure response time.

It's all part of a fledgling Army program that records how soldiers'
brains work when healthy, giving doctors baseline data to help diagnose
and treat the soldiers if they suffer a traumatic brain injury — the
signature injury of the Iraq war.

"This allows the Army to be much more proactive," said Lt. Col. Mark
McGrail, division surgeon for the 101st. "We don't want to wait until
the soldier is getting out of the Army to say, 'But I've had these
symptoms.'"

The mandatory brain-function tests are starting with the 101st at Fort
Campbell and are expected to spread to other military bases in the next
couple of months. Commanders at each base will decide whether to adopt
the program.

The tests provide a standard, objective measurement for each soldier's
reaction time, their short-term memory and other cognitive skills. That
data would be used when the soldiers come home to identify mild brain
trauma that can often go unnoticed and untreated.

One veterans group wants to ensure the Army doesn't use the results to
deny treatment by claiming that soldiers' problems came from
pre-existing conditions. [There's little doubt that is one purpose of
these tests. They certainly aren't going to test RECRUITS... or they'd
have to turn a whole bunch of warm bodies away, just when they've
lowered the minimum requirements to accept almost any warm body. ]

"We certainly think these tests should not be used to reduce the
responsibility that the Army has to treat the soldiers who have
served," said Jason Forrester, director of policy for Veterans for
America.

About 7,500 Fort Campbell soldiers have completed the tests, said Dr.
Robert Schlegel, a University of Oklahoma researcher who administers
the 10-minute exams to soldiers as they file quickly through a testing
center.

One question asks soldiers to memorize patterns on the screen and then
identify them later among several different patterns. Other questions
require soldiers to match numbers and symbols, or complete simple
addition and subtraction problems.

"Everybody functions a bit differently in terms of how quickly they
react to things, how well they process things and remember things and
so forth," Schlegel said.

Brain injuries caused by explosions have become some of the most common
combat wounds suffered in Iraq. Thirty percent of soldiers taken to
Walter Reed Army Medical Center since 2003 suffered traumatic brain
injuries, according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center.

The brain-injury center, which has seven facilities around the country,
has seen 2,669 patients between 2003 and 2007. But doctors believe many
less obvious brain-injury cases go undetected.

Sgt. Adam Wyatt, 22, has been close to 20 to 30 blasts from homemade
bombs, rocket-propelled grenades or mortar fire during his last two
deployments. But he's never been directly hit.

"The initial shock is a little disorienting," Wyatt said. "Your first
thought is seeing if anyone is wounded and suppressing enemy fire."

Soldiers sometimes walk away from explosions with no obvious injuries.
But the concussion from the blast can have a lingering effect that is
not always immediately apparent.

"They look physically normal, but their neurocognitive performance is
off," said Col. Mary Lopez, a physician specializing in occupational
therapy.

Most brain injuries are mild, and soldiers can recover with rest and
time away from the battlefield. But the military estimates that
one-fifth of the troops with these mild injuries will have prolonged or
lifelong symptoms requiring continuing care.

So little is known about traumatic brain injuries that these baseline
readings could become an important cornerstone for future study.

Even the parameters of the injury are not known, like how close a
soldier must be to a blast to suffer damage, or whether being knocked
unconscious makes a difference, said Jordan Grafman, a neuroscience
researcher at the National Institutes of Health. Without baseline
information, it is hard to say soldiers are more impaired after they
suffer a serious brain injury.

The Army has faced criticism for treatment of Iraqi war veterans after
complaints that some soldiers with brain damage were misdiagnosed. The
Government Accountability Office is investigating reports that as many
as 40 soldiers at Colorado's Fort Carson were misdiagnosed with
personality disorders after suffering brain damage or stress-related
injuries.

Lt. Col. Mark McGrail, division surgeon for the 101st, said mild brain
injury is difficult to diagnose because soldiers often don't report
symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, memory problems and irritability.

"The soldiers are by and large very motivated, and they don't want
their team to go back out there without them, even though they know
they had their bell rung and might not be at the top of their game,"
McGrail said.

Some symptoms of traumatic brain injury also overlap with
post-traumatic stress disorder, another common condition among Iraq war
veterans. The brain-injury test could also help doctors differentiate
between those conditions, Lopez said.

Sandy Schneider, director of Vanderbilt University's brain injury
rehabilitation program, said that while it's too early to tell how
effective the tests might be at helping diagnose and treat brain
injuries, the data could be extremely helpful for researchers.

"We're finding out so much more about this injury because of this war,
unfortunately," Schneider said.

The brain tests have already been tried in pilot programs at Fort
Bragg, N.C., with paratroopers who often suffer concussions during
jumps, as well as with some soldiers who have deployed to Iraq,
Afghanistan and Bosnia.

But the 101st is the first unit to use them on a large scale for every
soldier preparing to deploy. The division is leaving for its third
deployment, splitting between battlefronts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Associated Press Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione contributed to this
report from Milwaukee.]

On the Net:
Fort Campbell: http://www.campbell.army.mil/