Traumatic brain injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, and pain diagnoses in OIF/OEF/OND Veterans.
To identify the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and pain in Veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation New Dawn (OIF/OEF/OND), Veterans who received any inpatient or outpatient care from Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities from 2009 to 2011 were studied. A subset of Veterans was identified who were diagnosed with TBI, PTSD, and/or pain (head, neck, or back) as determined by their International Classification of Diseases-9th Revision-Clinical Modification codes. Between fiscal years 2009 and 2011, 613,391 Veterans accessed VHA services at least once (age: 31.9 +/- 9.6 yr). TBI diagnosis in any 1 year was slightly less than 7%. When data from 3 years were pooled, 9.6% were diagnosed with TBI, 29.3% were diagnosed with PTSD, and 40.2% were diagnosed with pain. The full polytrauma triad expression (TBI, PTSD, and pain) was diagnosed in 6.0%. Results show that increasing numbers of Veterans from OIF/OEF/OND accessed VHA over a 3 year period. Among those with a TBI diagnosis, the majority also had a mental health disorder, with approximately half having both PTSD and pain. While the absolute number of Veterans increased by over 40% from 2009 to 2011, the proportion of Veterans diagnosed with TBI and the high rate of comorbid PTSD and pain in this population remained relatively stable.
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 1223 East Marshall St, Richmond, VA 23298-0677. dcifu@vcu.edu.
David X
DX
Cifu
Brent C
BC
Taylor
William F
WF
Carne
Douglas
D
Bidelspach
Nina A
NA
Sayer
Joel
J
Scholten
Emily Hagel
EH
Campbell
D000328:Adult; D055826:Afghan Campaign 2001-; D001416:Back Pain / Q000453:epidemiology; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D054542:Iraq War, 2003-2011; D008297:Male; D019547:Neck Pain / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014728:Veterans / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
Operation 
Enduring Freedom; Operation Iraqi Freedom; Operation New 
Dawn; PTSD; TBI; military Veterans; military healthcare; pain; posttraumatic stress disorder; traumatic brain injury