{"id":70713,"date":"2018-05-01T17:30:25","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T17:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/05\/01\/shoulder-fired-weapons-can-cause-traumatic-brain-injuries-study-finds\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T13:56:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:56:55","slug":"shoulder-fired-weapons-can-cause-traumatic-brain-injuries-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/05\/01\/shoulder-fired-weapons-can-cause-traumatic-brain-injuries-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Shoulder-fired weapons can cause traumatic brain injuries, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Military personnel who have trained with heavy weaponry may have been exposed to blasts that cause traumatic brain injury, a newly published study claims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Emerging evidence presented in a May <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnas.org\/publications\/reports\/protecting-warfighters-from-blast-injury\">Center for New American Security<\/a> report suggests that extensive use of shoulder-fired weapons like the Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle, the M72 LAW or the AT4 exposes service members to \u201coverpressure\u201d of the brain, the effect when a blast wave traveling faster than the speed of sound causes a ripple of the skull, generating additional pressure on the cerebrum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prevalence of these injuries \u2014 coined \u201cthe signature of today\u2019s wars\u201d \u2014 in troops has escalated dramatically since the Department of Defense began documenting cases in 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since then, there have been close to 380,000 personnel who have reportedly sustained some degree of traumatic brain injury. And by 2007, head injuries were the most treated injury by the U.S. military, eclipsing chest and abdominal wounds, the study found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But despite the soaring number of TBI cases in troops, the study suggests the injury is, in fact, underreported \u201cdue to fear of stigma &#8230; or from the compounding effects of repeated exposure of low level blasts.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was discovered in 2009 that military doctors rarely even addressed head injuries that didn\u2019t show bleeding or penetration of the skull, CNAS found. Muddling the diagnostic process even further is that only the worst cases of TBI show up on most exams \u2014 TBI caused by a blast wave is unlikely to appear at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2018\/02\/22\/this-new-blood-test-can-detect-traumatic-brain-injury-in-troops\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ARM-XX-more-soldiers-web.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">This new blood test can detect traumatic brain injury in troops<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The first blood test for use in evaluating TBI fills a critical need, military experts say.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ambiguous detection process, coupled with the fact that symptoms are often confused with those of post-traumatic stress disorder, makes accurately assessing injury severity especially complex.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMany injured soldiers do not initially realize that they have suffered an injury or experience immediate symptoms,\u201d the CNAS report said. \u201cSoldiers have even participated in firefights that they later do not remember, losing hours of memory after blast exposure.\u201d <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cumulative effect of repeated low-level blast exposure also complicates injury recognition, as TBI symptoms can manifest at a later point despite the absence of a singular contributing event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Study author and former Army Ranger Paul Scharre <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/health-shots\/2018\/04\/30\/606142634\/report-to-army-cites-concussion-risk-of-weapons-blast-to-the-shooter\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">told NPR<\/a> that extensive exposure to particular weapons over the course of a military career \u201cmight have some subtle and insidious long-term effect that doesn\u2019t materialize until later.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those long-term effects can include \u201cmemory, attention, emotional, and mood problems that can last over a year,\u201d the report said. The likelihood of developing an anxiety disorder, insomnia, fatigue, dizziness, irritability, headaches or seizures \u2014 all symptoms that can be confused for PTSD \u2014 also increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The neurological toll of operating shoulder-fired weaponry is one Scharre knows well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen you fire it, the pressure wave feels like getting hit in the face,\u201d Scharre said. \u201cIf you\u2019re looking at a large anti-tank rocket that a soldier would carry on his or her shoulder, that\u2019s now a pretty large explosion \u2014 and it\u2019s happening right next to your head.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite growing evidence of blast injury effects, military-grade helmets are not currently manufactured with a blast injury prevention requirement. And even if they were, it\u2019s not certain that upgraded helmets alone could eliminate TBI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, a 1999 study found that \u201c51 percent of warfighters who only experienced explosive injuries in their lower extremities still had symptoms consistent with TBI, including vertigo, headache, and insomnia,\u201d CNAS reported. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ideas to remedy the existing predicament include developing helmets with modular face shields and implementing the wear of blast gauges, small environmental sensors that can be fit to a helmet or shoulder to measure blast overpressure, acceleration and temperature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEvery service member who is in a position where he or she might be exposed to blast waves should be wearing these devices,\u201d Scharre told NPR. \u201cAnd we need to be recording that data, putting it in their record and then putting it in a database for medical studies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> Documenting blast exposure history in service members\u2019 medical records would help ensure necessary care is provided for service-connected injuries, the study suggests. It would also help enforce the oft-overstepped boundary of a daily blast exposure limit, a critical step in mitigating cumulative wear and tear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Until some semblance of certainty for diagnosing TBI cases exists, however, the costs of treating such injuries is expected to continue skyrocketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that TBI treatment cost $234 million in fiscal year 2015, the study found. That number is expected to balloon to $2.2 billion over the next decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The findings of the study are currently being reviewed by the Army, the NPR report said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Extensive use of shoulder-fired weapons like the Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle, the M72 LAW or the AT4 exposes service members to \u201coverpressure\u201d of the brain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":105129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,68,12,26,13,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3413],"class_list":["post-70713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-military-culture","category-news","category-newsletters","category-off-duty","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"H5R3KZ72A5BTHHG4N5ECOCXMHY","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2018\/05\/01\/shoulder-fired-weapons-can-cause-traumatic-brain-injuries-study-finds\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Shoulder-fired weapons can cause traumatic brain injuries, study finds - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Extensive use of shoulder-fired weapons like the Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle, the M72 LAW or the AT4 exposes service members to \u201coverpressure\u201d of the brain.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shoulder-fired weapons can cause traumatic brain injuries, study finds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Extensive use of shoulder-fired weapons like the Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle, the M72 LAW or the AT4 exposes service members to \u201coverpressure\u201d of the brain.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/05\/01\/shoulder-fired-weapons-can-cause-traumatic-brain-injuries-study-finds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Navy Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-01T17:30:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T13:56:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"J.D. 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