Poor Neural Processing of Auditory Tones Gives Clues to Schizophrenia Impairments SAN DIEGO - A deficiency in the neural processing of simple auditory tones helps explain some of the clinical symptoms associated with schizophrenia, such as missing social cues or hearing voices others cannot hear, according to a new study from the San Diego VA Healthcare System and the University of California San Diego. The processing problems can cascade across wide swaths of the brain in schizophrenia patients, according to the study in thecurrent online edition of the journal Neuroimage. More
Widely-Used Citicoline Found to Be Ineffective in TBI Treatment BOSTON - A compound approved for treating traumatic brain injury (TBI) in nearly 60 countries does not appear to approve function or cognitive status in patients, according to a new study. The report was on a randomized trial of more than 1,200 participants with TBI that looked at the effectiveness of citicoline, an endogenous compound available as a dietary supplement in the United States but sold as a prescription medication in some other countries. More
WASHINGTON - In the wake of new federal conference oversight, the military medical services are navigating how to ensure that medical personnel can continue to receive vital continuing medical education and keep up with the latest advances in their field, while adhering to new conference regulations. The full impact of the new conference guidelines on medical personnel is unknown, but key clinical conferences have already been cancelled, postponed or downsized in response to the new restrictions. More
CHICAGO - More than 160,000 veterans treated by VA are considered legally blind, and another million have low vision that challenges daily activities. While VA has an extensive network of services for those beneficiaries, new studies suggest that attention also needs to focus on a new group of vision-impaired veterans: those returning from recent conflicts with eyesight affected by mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Returning veterans who suffered brain injuries from blasts are reporting symptoms such as blurred vision, double vision, sensitivity to light and difficulty reading. More
WASHINGTON - The use of trained dogs as has been accepted therapy since the 1960s for persons with visual, hearing and mobility impairments. Only recently, however, have service dogs been trained to assist men and women suffering from mental health issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Despite only limited scientific research in the area, many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have reported that being paired with one of these specially trained animals has substantially improved their quality of life. That’s why VA’s decision to limit benefits to animals assisting with visual, hearing, and mobility impairments, excluding those trained to assist solely with mental health problems, created such an outcry. More
“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” – Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Editor-in-Chief, Chester ‘Trip’ Buckenmaier III, MD, COL, MC, USA
The federal system of medicine has created the finest multi-trauma care organization ever seen. With the war in Iraq ended and the war in Afghanistan winding down, we again are undergoing a process of demobilization, with the Army reducing its size by 80,000 soldiers.
My concern, rooted in the reality of the present drawdown, is the loss or degradation of all the knowledge federal medicine has amassed regarding managing combat casualties during the last 11 years of conflict. As terrible and wasteful as war is, it would be an even greater unforgivable waste to allow the medical lessons on this longest American conflict to be lost to posterity. More
