• W C Walker, L M Franke, S D McDonald, A P Sima, and L Keyser-Marcus.
• a Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation , Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine , Richmond , VA , USA .
• Brain Inj. 2015 Jan 1; 29 (13-14): 1581-8.

Primary ObjectivesTo measure common psychiatric conditions after military deployment with blast exposure and test relationships to post-concussion syndrome (PCS) symptoms and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) history.Research DesignCross-sectional.Methods And ProceduresService members or Veterans (n = 107) within 2 years of blast exposure underwent structured interviews for mTBI, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and multiple mood and anxiety diagnoses.Main Outcomes And ResultsMTBI history and active PTSD were both common, additionally 61% had at least one post-deployment mood or anxiety disorder episode. Psychiatric diagnoses had a high degree of comorbidity. Most dramatically, depression was 43-times (95% CI = 11-165) more likely if an individual had PTSD. PCS symptoms were greater in those with post-deployment PTSD or mood diagnosis. However, neither mTBI nor blast exposure history had an effect on the odds of having PTSD, mood or anxiety condition.ConclusionsThese findings support that psychiatric conditions beyond PTSD are common after military combat deployment with blast exposure. They also highlight the non-specificity of post-concussion type symptoms. While some researchers have implicated mTBI history as a contributor to post-deployment mental health conditions, no clear association was found. This may partly be due to the more rigorous method of retrospective mTBI diagnosis determination.

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