Study: Iraq War Vets Suffer Mild Memory Lapses

[sabra]

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/local_story_213144921.html

Study: Iraq War Vets Suffer Mild Memory Lapses
But Vets Also Have Better Reaction Time, Study Found

(AP) CHICAGO Veterans of the fighting in Iraq are more likely than other U.S. soldiers to suffer mild memory and attention lapses back home, but they also tend to have better reaction time, at least in the short-term, a study found.

The findings may simply reflect the normal changes that would be expected to occur as soldiers make the transition from combat to regular life.

But they could also signal more serious mental health problems down the road, said lead author Jennifer Vasterling, a psychologist and researcher with the Veterans Affairs' Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System.

The study involved 654 soldiers who took mental-function tests a few months before going to Iraq in mid-to-late 2003 and within three months after returning in 2005. The researchers noted subtle changes in their scores.

[grytpype]

1. I'll bet they have better reaction time!

If I was dodging sniper fire and IEDs, I'd be jumping around like a cat when I got home!

[Bigmack]

2. There's a reasonable explanations...

... why combat vets have this problem.

Maybe they got their bells rung too many times with nearby explosions and gunfire.

Maybe the short-term stuff they're being asked to remember outside of combat just isn't as important - in their minds - as short-term stuff during combat.

Maybe they're borderline heat casualties. Cooking in those helmets and body armor is not good for the brain.

Maybe combat is just not good for the mind.

Throughout history, the grunts have been expendable, and no matter how many yellow ribbons and magnetic "support the troops" ribbons on cars.... our troops are seen as just as expendable by the elites as the troops were in the battle of the Marne. Their bodies and their minds.

Maybe we should find another way.

[MrPrax]

3. Convenient Study...

for any defense that might want to use it.

You can use it to discount all sorts of testimony in any military tribunal that 'absent-minded' soldiers might stumble into...

[Donnachaidh]

4. one of the symptoms of PTSD is memory lapse

your brain has taken in far too much to deal with, and you have spots of time missing. Sometimes they come back, but not all. It depends on how much stress you've been subjected to.

[Monkeyman]

5. Yep but this is brain injury read it here

http://www.vawatchdog.org
scroll down

[RamboLiberal]

6. Can you imagine the accumulated PTSD these guys and girls

are going to suffer after 3-4 deployments? And we all know the benefits and treatments for them are being cut by the greedy repukes.

[Monkeyman]

8. One out of four right now suffer from PTSD

[Megahurtz]

10. And the worse the trauma, the more the memory lapse. n/t

[meldroc]

7. Gulf War Syndrome hitting a new generation?

Same battlefields, same weapons (that use such healthy stuff as depleted uranium), much of the same environmental conditions.

[Monkeyman]

9. Read my post about DU

Its links into DNA