Jason Nikora
Psych 1 10:15-12:20 M-Th
7/21/2015
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Degenerative Cognitive Diseases Buck (2011) conducted an advanced review of current literature involving the growing issue of repeated Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) and its long lasting effects on creating degenerative cognitive diseases titled Mild Traumatic Brain Injury; A Silent Epidemic in Our Practices. MTBI can cause a host of degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia pugilistica, as well as a multitude of sensory, emotional, behavioral, communicational, and intellectual issues. These can range from difficulty regarding memory or speaking to depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Repeated MTBI has proven to especially dangerous as it is often more difficult to diagnose due to the relatively minor immediate implications that it presents, as opposed to the more blunt and obvious symptoms of severe or moderate TBI. Buck (2011) states that “A diagnosis of severe or moderate TBI is relatively straightforward given the availability of diagnostic technology, including computer tomography scans and magnetic resonance imaging. Mild injuries, however, are far more difficult to diagnosis”. This is due to an underreporting of MTBI by those who suffer from this variety of head trauma as the symptoms may be subdued enough in order to not cause an alarm as well as current technology not being able “to reliably detect the neural damage that occurs in mild injuries”. Another major point that was brought up regarding the underreporting of MTBI was that many victims of mild Traumatic Brain Injury are athletes who have received many small concussions over the course of a sporting event. These athletes feel a pressure not to report these injuries due to the fact that if they report any concussion-like symptoms they will