The Veterans Affairs (VA) San Diego Healthcare System, supported by Veterans Medical Research Foundation, a private not-for-profit research corporation located on the grounds of the VA, is accepting patients for a new study that provides treatment to veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and helps get them back into the labor force.
According to a press release, the VA's study seeks to address TBI, one of the signature wounds of this war and one of the causes of unemployment among veterans, by evaluating an intervention called CogSMART ' Cognitive Symptom Management and Rehabilitation Therapy for veterans with traumatic brain injury. CogsSMART teaches the study participants strategies for bypassing cognitive impairments, and the study also provides supported employment to place veterans in their desired job field.
An estimated 20 percent of today's veterans have mild to moderate traumatic brain injury, according to the VA's press release. The condition that does not render veterans unable to work but, because symptoms include sleep disturbance, fatigue, headaches, and memory and concentration issues, traumatic brain injury can make long-term employment difficult to secure.
The study is open to veterans who are using the GI Bill to complete their education so that they might gain real-world work experience to help them land a job after graduation. For more information about the study, call Dr. Elizabeth Twamley, the study's principal investigator, or Amber Gregory at 619-228-8080. For more information about Veterans Medical Research Foundation and the medical research studies benefiting veterans the organization supports, visit www.vmrf.org.
In a statement, Twamley said, "We are just starting to understand the physics of blast injuries. The veterans in our study have been exposed to repeated blasts from improvised explosive devices over multiple deployments. The blasts create pressure waves within the brain, resulting in shearing in the blood vessels and neuronal damage. Similar to sports injuries, we now know that many little hits can have a cumulative effect that is equally, if not more devastating, than a big hit.'
According to Twamley, veterans with mild/moderate traumatic brain injury may have numerous post-concussive symptoms that complicate employment, even if they don't show signs of injury in a CT scan or MRI. 'These veterans are ready, willing and able to work,' she says. Twamley. 'And they deserve the chance.'
