Pentagon Admits Postponing Brain Screening Of Returning American Troops From Iraq

March 18, 2008 12:20 p.m. EST

Washington, DC (AHN) - The fear of discovering a massive war syndrome among American troops returning from Iraq was the cause of Pentagon's postponement of routine brain screening among American soldiers for mild brain injuries.

Col. Kenneth Cox, head of Pentagon's medical assessment division, explained the Department of Defense delayed the conduct of brain screenings to steer clear of another potential Gulf War syndrome discovered among American soldiers in the 1990s. "Some individuals will seek diagnosis from provider to provider to provider," Cox told USA Today.

Screening programs may lead the soldiers to believe they have a mental condition and such a belief often makes correct diagnosis more difficult, Cox said.

A rise in mild traumatic brain injury has been observed among U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq, characterized by headaches, dizziness, memory loss, nausea and convulsions. After five years, experts have concluded the brain injuries were the result of the troops' constant exposure to roadside bombings that sent concussion waves through the brain, even from a distance.

An army survey estimated that among 2,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, between 11 percent to 20 percent suffer from TBI. With over 1.6 million American soldiers having served in Iraq since 2003, many of the troops return human unaware they have such a medical condition and are not treated.

Cox's admission runs counter to a Pentagon Feb. 19 media briefing with Col. Jeff Johnson, command surgeon of the Combined Joint Task Force 82 and the 82nd Airborne Division. The military officer then said before the soldiers leave theater, they are screened for mild traumatic brain injury and PTSD. "The process by which they are receiving care here is world class, having the right medications, the right ability to be able to give them therapy, as it might need be, and tailored to be able to meet the condition that they have and they environment that they're in," Johnson said.