Veterans & Brain Injuries

Working with colleagues at the University of Richmond, as well as at VCU and the McGuire VA Medical Center, Joanna Wares, associate professor of mathematics, researches issues related to veterans and traumatic brain injury.

Wares, an expert on statistical and mathematical modeling pertaining to medical science, has focused on finding quantitative measures for diagnosing concussions, also called mild traumatic brain injury or mTBI.

“mTBI is a huge problem for veterans, especially from the Gulf Wars. Unlike athletes, who are another population often dealing with concussions, veterans often also suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The symptoms, like memory loss or confusion, can overlap,” Wares explains. “Untangling the differences between concussion and PTSD signals and providing a proper diagnosis is paramount in the correct treatment.”

Wares’ research team looks at measures, including eye-tracking and balance as well as EEGs of the brain. These physical measures can help distinguish concussion from PTSD, and both of these from healthy brains.

“We have used advanced mathematics called graph theory to study brain networks,” Wares said. “What we found was that when patients had incurred mTBIs, their signals were different from healthy brains. The EEGs of mTBI patients were more disordered than in healthy subjects of the study.”

 The usual diagnosis for concussion is a self-reported injury; however, both concussion and PTSD can cause various forms of amnesia, so having these objective other measures that healthcare providers can utilize is key to good treatment.

Contact Sunni Brown (sbrown5@richmond.edu), director of media and public relations, to connect with her today.