Fort Carson, Colo. (AP) A 22-month study of Fort Carson soldiers returning from the middle east found that nearly 18 Percent suffered from at least a mild form of traumatic brain injury, which is also known as TBI.
Officials at the Army base outside of Colorado Springs have examined 13,440 soldiers since 2005. Of those examined, nearly 2,400 exhibited some of the symptoms associated with mild TBI.
Those include headaches, memory loss, irritability, difficulty sleeping and balance problems.
Bullets and shrapnel that penetrate the skull are the obvious causes of TBI, but officials say explosions that have rattled the head of Fort Carson soldiers are overwhelmingly to blame. Blast waves and the resulting sudden change in air pressure from explosions are the leading cause of the closed-head injuries.
