After years of work and research, the Department of Defense is finally issuing a cohesive action plan for all military service to follow regarding brain health and traumatic brain injury.

Military medical experts have previously described the plan as a “paradigm shift” in the way the Pentagon approaches brain health. This plan moves the military away from the old way of dealing with dangerous effects on the head as a single, isolated incident, and instead considers these exposures extensively throughout a soldier’s career.

“The Warfighter Brain Health Strategy and Action Plan aims to optimize brain health and combat TBI, including long-term or late-onset exposure to blast exposure, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and TBI. It addresses brain health and brain exposure, including impacts.”The National Defense Strategy states that the pursuit of superior lethality in the sector is linked to speed of decision-making (neurocognition) and brain injury,” said the National Defense Strategy. It’s up to us to detect when it happens.”

According to the Department of Defense’s TBI Center of Excellence, over the past two decades, the military has documented approximately 454,000 TBIs of varying severity.

The plan rests on five initiatives, from recognizing traumatic brain injury to advancing research on the issue.

This strategy lays the foundation for brain health across the military by establishing a cognitive baseline and monitoring it throughout the military career.

“Without a cognitive surveillance program, departments lack the ability to monitor and optimize cognitive performance to maximize operational readiness,” Plan said. “Identifying cognitive decline over time supports combatant-level interventions to improve combat readiness.”

The Department of Defense establishes cognitive surveillance programs, uses restorative treatments when cognitive levels decline, and raises awareness about cognitive health.

While that policy is more proactive, the Department of Defense also plans to change how it identifies, monitors, and mitigates harmful exposures to the brain. , toxins, directed energy, etc. There are many ways military personnel are exposed to harmful pressure on the brain.

The goal of planning to use reparative therapy is based on the idea of ​​establishing a cognitive baseline so that TBI can be diagnosed more quickly.

DoD policy is to consistently and continuously assess the brain health of military personnel in training, establish a monitoring system that records the incidence of brain exposure, and provide real-time feedback on the intensity of brain exposure. is to develop a mechanism that provides

The Department of Defense also creates standards for acceptable levels of exposure.

While the military is monitoring these impacts, it is also working on ways to mitigate the risks.

“Medical care should continue to focus on early detection and documentation to support effective diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation,” said the study. “Thus, there is a need to establish a systematic understanding of patient outcomes to support quality assurance activities to maximize brain health after TBI.”

Education about the symptoms of TBI and encouraging self-reporting of those symptoms is high on the list of plans.

The Pentagon used some of these tactics to encourage people to raise issues and provide ongoing messages after the attack on Iraq’s Ain al-Assad air base in January 2020. The Pentagon has established a policy that he must assess anyone within 50 meters of the blast.

“There are some symptoms that are common in people who have suffered a traumatic brain injury,” said the Joint Chiefs of Staff Brigadier General. General Paul Friedrichs said in response to the attack: “Headache, dizziness, memory problems, balance problems, nausea, vomiting, difficulty concentrating, irritability, visual disturbances, ringing in the ears.”

The military also advised people to bring any of these symptoms forward.

A 2018 National Institutes of Health study found that Army policy encouraging self-reporting of TBI dramatically increased the number of identified TBIs.

“These policies include field concussion screening of military personnel, in-theater neurological examination, TBI reporting, follow-up, pre- and post-deployment TBI screening, and event-based reporting of exposure to potential concussion events. ,” said the study. Many of these same policies have been implemented in DoD plans.

The last two efforts are closely related in terms of mitigating the long-term effects of TBI and continuing to fund research to support TBI.

The Department of Defense will define the long-term and late-term effects of TBI, find evidence-based treatments, and work with VA to improve care.

The military also develops research strategies on brain health and makes data available to academia and Department of Defense Health.