Features of diagnosis and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder combined with traumatic brain injury

Abstract

The role of latent persistent traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the development and course of acute stress disorder (ASD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is controversial, although many clinicians and health care professionals, as well as the community, assume that such a connection exists. This raises the question of the relationship between concussions and blunt head trauma and combat-related stress reactions and combat-related PTSD. Since it is impossible to exclude the presence of mine-blast trauma injuries in most servicemen at some stage of participation in combat, this should be taken into account during the diagnostic process. With regard to traumatic brain injury (TBI), such as blast-related concussion, the effects of the primary blast on the brain are controversial. The mechanism and consequences of excessive pressure in the brain due to an explosion are similar to those observed in a fluid percussion model in animals with mild TBI and cause ultrastructural and biochemical changes and associated cognitive deficits in rats.