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Long-Term Impact of Military-Relevant Brain Injury Consortium Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium

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Advanced brain age in deployment-related traumatic brain injury: A LIMBIC-CENC neuroimaging study

Dennis, E. L., Taylor, B. A., Newsome, M. R., Troyanskaya, M., Abildskov, T. J., Betts, A. M., Bigler, E. D., Cole, J., Davenport, N., Duncan, T., Gill, J., Guedes, V., Hinds, S. R., 2nd, Hovenden, E. S., Kenney, K., Pugh, M. J., Scheibel, R. S., Shahim, P. P., Shih, R., Walker, W. C., … Wilde, E. A. (2022). Advanced brain age in deployment-related traumatic brain injury: A LIMBIC-CENC neuroimaging study. Brain injury, 36(5), 662–672. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699052.2022.2033844. PMID: 35125044; PMCID: PMC9187589.

Main Question

Is history of mTBI associated with advanced and/or accelerated brain aging among United States (US) military Service Members and Veterans?

Study Findings

Among 617,534 eligible ain age was estimated from MRI data. Males with a history of deployment-related mTBI show advanced brain aging. Several common comorbidities, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and alcohol misuse were also associated with advanced brain age.

Practical Uses

Deployment-related mTBI, depression, PTSD and heavy alcohol use may have a long-term impact on the brain health of Service Members and Veterans.

Clinicians should follow clinical practice guideline recommendations to manage mTBI, depression, PTSD and alcohol use. Clinicians should also consider making healthy lifestyle recommendations and query whether depression and/or PTSD treatment is successful.

For more information on healthy lifestyles

In an effort to provide the latest findings to our consumers as quickly as possible, some of these studies, while fully peer reviewed, have not been presented or published either electronically or in print. Findings are presented for informational purposes only and should not be cited or referenced until they are formally published or presented.

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The U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, 839 Chandler Street, Fort Detrick MD 21702-5014 is the awarding and administering acquisition office. This work was supported by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs endorsed by the Department of Defense, through the Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program Long-Term Impact of Military-Relevant Brain Injury Consortium (LIMBIC) Award/W81XWH-18-PH/TBIRP-LIMBIC under Awards No. W81XWH1920067 and W81XWH-13-2-0095, and by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Awards No. I01 CX002097, I01 CX002096, I01 HX003155, I01 RX003444, I01 RX003443, I01 RX003442, I01 CX001135, I01 CX001246, I01 RX001774, I01 RX 001135, I01 RX 002076, I01 RX 001880, I01 RX 002172, I01 RX 002173, I01 RX 002171, I01 RX 002174, and I01 RX 002170. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Department of Defense. / Created by VCU University Relations

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