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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is now a well-defined clinical syndrome

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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is now a well-defined clinical syndrome, according to experts. The 2000 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision states that some patients who experience life-threatening events might well feel intense fear or helplessness which becomes PTSD.

Victims of PTSD suffer through a number of symptoms, which may include re-experiencing the traumatic event, avoidance of stimuli associated with the event, a loss of concentration, sudden anger or irritation, hypervigilance, and a heightened response to being startled. All of these can cause a detrimental effect on the victim to enjoy life.

Mild explosive blast traumatic brain injury (bTBI) has many of these symptoms in common with PTSD, including changes in sleep patterns and moods. There are some differences, however, doctors have learned. Headaches, for instance, are much more likely with TBI, while hypervigilance and the tendency to startle more easily is more common with PTSD.

Some soldiers in Queens and Staten Island suffer from both PTSD and bTBI, which is not surprising, considering how being near an explosion can be both physically and mentally traumatic. Since there are so many similarities between the two conditions, there is often misdiagnosis. There could be soldiers outside the range of the blast who suffer psychological harm, both due to witnessing the explosion and to seeing fellow soldiers being injured by the explosion. Or a soldier could suffer a closed head traumatic brain injury, a form of bTBI. Since these injuries sometimes have no visible sign, a soldier who is physically wounded may appear to be suffering from PTSD, instead of physical brain injury.

New York Brain Injury Lawyers work to see that a wounded soldier receives the right kind of therapy in such cases.

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