Vets' Sleep Problems Tied to Injury Type

Full article at: CHEST: Combat Vets' Sleep Problems Tied to Injury Type By Todd Neale, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: October 26, 2011 HONOLULU -- "The type of injury sustained by U.S. military personnel in the Middle East appears to be related to the types of sleep disturbances they experience when they return home, researchers found. Among soldiers with traumatic brain injury (TBI), blast injuries were associated with higher rates of anxiety and insomnia, and blunt trauma was associated with a higher rate of obstructive sleep apnea, according to Jacob Collen, MD, of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md." Among "troops with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), those who were not injured were more likely to receive a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea compared with their injured counterparts, Collen reported at the CHEST meeting here. He is an active-duty Army officer. "Patients returning from combat with TBI or PTSD should undergo comprehensive sleep evaluations," he said, "and this will likely become more important as these patients leave the military healthcare system and encounter civilian providers."