Study Description and Background
Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a common injury sustained by military personnel serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. Work by Terrio, Brenner and colleagues (2009) suggests that 22.8% of Soldiers in one Brigade Combat Team returning from Iraq had clinician-confirmed TBI. At postdeployment, 7.5% of the total (n=3,973) continue to endorse three or more symptoms including headaches, irritability, and cognitive difficulties.
Recent work by Hoge et al. (2008), suggests that those with TBI are at greater risk for developing PTSD than those without such a history. Approximately 44% of Soldiers reporting a loss of consciousness associated with TBI also met criteria for PTSD. This co-morbid rate is high in comparison to PTSD rates of 16.2% in those with other injuries and 9.1% of those with no injuries. A history of PTSD has also been associated with diminished cognitive, psychiatric and psychosocial functioning including suicidality, substance abuse and family problems (Tanielian & Jaycox, 2008).
Identifying an efficacious and accessible treatment strategy would be of significant benefit to Veterans/military personnel, their family members and the military/VA health care systems.
Acupressure, a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modality, potentially fulfills this need. Acupressure (Burmeister, 1997) is nonpharmacological. Initially it can be administered by a skilled clinician. Follow-up treatment can be self-administered; thereby facilitating long-term maintenance and portability.
