- Explain to concerned patients that the neuropsychological changes observed in this study did not reach thresholds of clinical significance.
- Explain to concerned patients that this study did not address whether the observed neuropsychological changes would persist in the long-term.
NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 1 -- Combat soldiers returning from Iraq don't get over it quickly, according to a VA study reported here. Their neuropsychological adaptations to warfare are not easily set aside.
Although their reaction times were better, soldiers returning from Iraq performed mildly worse on tasks requiring sustained attention, verbal learning, and visual-spatial memory compared with soldiers who were not sent overseas, said Jennifer J. Vasterling, Ph.D., of the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System here.
The soldiers were also significantly more tense and confused than they had been before deployment, Dr. Vasterling and colleagues reported in the Aug. 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
It is not clear how long these effects will last, but they have the potential to negatively affect soldiers' long-term health and impair their ability to perform the day-to-day tasks of civilian life, the investigators said.
