Study: War can affect brain function

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week finds that, in some Army veterans, deployment to the Iraq War is associated with increased confusion and tension, a shortened attention span, and impaired memory. The study, led by Jennifer Vasterling of the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System, also found that combat veterans had faster reaction time compared to Army personnel who hadn't served in Iraq. (News coverage here: LA Times, Psychiatric Times.)

In an accompanying editorial, Matthew Hotopf and Simon Wessely note that the neurological changes cited above are described by the researchers as "mild" and "subtle."

Hotopf and Wessely suggest that the findings support the conception of post-deployment mental health problems as "the persistence on return home of some of the psychological adaptations required during deployment." They write:

The term battlemind captures the way in which deployed military personnel develop ways of adapting that are appropriate and helpful when vigilance is required, decisions have to be taken quickly, targeted aggression is appropriate, and emotional control is essential. Many returning veterans report difficulties switching from these normal responses to the responses required at home. The finding that veterans had improved reaction times provides a clue: it would be unlikely for a pathological process caused by neurotoxins to improve reaction time. Continued hypervigilance provides a more plausible explanation. The nature of the scores that changed on the Profile of Mood States is another clue in that veterans experienced an increase in anxiety symptoms (feeling "tense" or "on edge") as well as confusion (feeling "bewildered" or "muddled"). Although these phenomena may have some similarities to PTSD, they are perhaps better considered as essentially normal coping experiences, which may perhaps influence neuropsychological function.