PTSD and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

For mental health practitioners in both civilian and military contexts, graduate students, and trainees, Vasterling (psychiatry, Boston U.) et al. compile 14 chapters that describe how to care for patients with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder and mild traumatic brain injury. Focusing on how best to recognize this comorbidity and its associated clinical problems, how to structure interventions, and which factors need to be considered from the perspective of health care delivery systems, psychologists, psychiatrists, and brain injury specialists from the US, Australia, and UK address the biological and psychosocial mechanisms underlying both disorders and ways they may affect each other. They also discuss their clinical presentation, potential courses, and indications; commonly associated problems such as chronic pain and substance abuse; separate and combined assessment and treatment practices; implications for service delivery in the military; and estimating the costs of care and the allocation of clinical resources. Annotation Ac2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Jennifer J. Vasterling, PhD, is Chief of Psychology at the VA Boston Healthcare System. She is also a clinical neuropsychologist, an active researcher in the VA National Center for PTSD, and Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Vasterling is a recipient of the Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Science of Trauma Psychology from the American Psychological Association (Division 56, Division of Trauma Psychology). She is an authority on the neuropsychological features of PTSD and is known for her work examining the cognitive and emotional changes that accompany war-zone deployment.