Office of Research & Development |
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In a study published online in the journal Neurology in June 2014, a team of researchers from the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco, looked at the records of 188,764 Veterans aged 55 years or older who had at least one inpatient or outpatient visit during both the years 2000-2003 and 2003-2012 and did not have a diagnosis of dementia on their first visit.
They found that older Veterans with a diagnosis of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) had a 60 percent greater risk of developing dementia over a nine-year period. According to the research team, "Our results suggest that TBI in older Veterans may predispose [them] toward development of symptomatic dementia and raise concern about the potential long-term consequences of TBI in younger Veterans and civilians." The results of the study were covered in a number of news media outlets, including USA Today.
