Article

To identify the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI), posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), and pain in Veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation
Enduring Freedom/Operation New Dawn (OIF/OEF/OND), Veterans who received any
inpatient or outpatient care from Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities
from 2009 to 2011 were studied. A subset of Veterans was identified who were
diagnosed with TBI, PTSD, and/or pain (head, neck, or back) as determined by
their International Classification of Diseases-9th Revision-Clinical Modification
codes. Between fiscal years 2009 and 2011, 613,391 Veterans accessed VHA services
at least once (age: 31.9 +/- 9.6 yr). TBI diagnosis in any 1 year was slightly
less than 7%. When data from 3 years were pooled, 9.6% were diagnosed with TBI,
29.3% were diagnosed with PTSD, and 40.2% were diagnosed with pain. The full
polytrauma triad expression (TBI, PTSD, and pain) was diagnosed in 6.0%. Results
show that increasing numbers of Veterans from OIF/OEF/OND accessed VHA over a 3
year period. Among those with a TBI diagnosis, the majority also had a mental
health disorder, with approximately half having both PTSD and pain. While the
absolute number of Veterans increased by over 40% from 2009 to 2011, the
proportion of Veterans diagnosed with TBI and the high rate of comorbid PTSD and
pain in this population remained relatively stable.

Langue : ANGLAIS