WARTIME TBI AND ALZHEIMER'S  [ back to What's New ]
Scientists at the National Institute on Aging and Duke University just published a retrospective study on the link between head injuries in American soldiers who fought in world war II and onset of Alzheimer's Disease. Instead of relying on participant's recollections, they studied the actual medical records of the 548 Navy and Marine veterans with wartime head injuries (many of them 50 years old).

This group was compared to a control group of 1,228 WWII veterans with no history of TBI. Following statistical analysis they found the risk of developing AD correlated directly with the severity of the TBI. The risk was low for mild, increased for moderate (30 min to 24 hours Loss of Consciousness or Post Traumatic Amnesia) and highest for severe (LOC or PTA over 24 hours). Unlike several other studies they found no enhanced risk for development of AD in TBI survivors with the APOE-e4 gene. Alcohol use, tobacco use and positive family history for dementia, were also found not to increase the risk.