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Blast Injury

An illustration of a triangular yellow and black blast zone street sign on a square cobalt blue background.

What is a Blast Injury?

A blast injury is a trauma caused by direct or indirect exposure to an explosion. When it involves damage to the brain, a blast injury is a type of traumatic brain injury. It is also called a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).

Blast injuries can cause short-term and long-term problems and many physical, cognitive, and emotional conditions.

How Does It Happen?

This type of injury happens if you are near a bomb or an explosion. Your brain could suffer damage even if you weren’t directly ‘touched’ by a blast and don’t have physical wounds.

A bomb or explosive device makes what is called a supersonic wave, which travels faster than the speed of sound. If you are in the area of an explosion, up to a quarter-mile away, this sound wave can cause pressure in your brain resulting in brain damage.

For instance, you may have suffered brain injury if you served in a war or were close to an explosion such as the one that happened at the 2013 Boston Marathon. Sometimes a person does not realize their brain was injured, especially when symptoms don’t begin immediately after injury.

The supersonic sound wave produced by a blast (explosion) causes the brain to be compressed within the skull causing damage.

A black and white illustration showing an explosion (right), its blast radius and the force from it blowing back a human form (left). In a rectangle below the image shows a top view of a normal brain during the blast (right) and then a top view of the brain after the blast, showing brain compression or blast injury (left).

Symptoms

A blast injury can cause many physical, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive issues. These symptoms/conditions can last weeks after an injury or begin years later.

A concussion is also a mild traumatic brain injury, so the symptoms for both a blast injury and a concussion are the same.

When symptoms begin months or years after injury, it’s easy to overlook the link between the two. For example, a war veteran has likely been near multiple explosions. Months after their physical injuries have healed, mental health issues may appear. They may have trouble sleeping, trouble focusing, and start feeling angry or depressed. Although these are symptoms of a blast injury, they are often diagnosed with only < href="/treatments/ptsd-and-trauma-treatments/">Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Though they may be put on an anti-depressant or given a prescription to help them sleep, the doctor should evaluate further to rule out a brain injury.

It is vital to get a proper diagnosis to get the right treatment for your condition. Symptoms often do not go away if left untreated.

Blast Injury Treatment

If you’ve been near an explosion, you have likely suffered a brain injury. Even minor injuries to the brain can have serious consequences. Proper treatment is essential and can prevent more severe damage. There are many effective < a href="/treatments/concussion-treatments/">treatment methods for symptoms of blast injury/concussion. Since every injury is different, treatment should not be one-size-fits-all. It is also never too late to get treatment, even if the injury happened years ago.

How We Uniquely Treat Blast Injury Symptoms

Dr. Diane® and her integrative team of Brain Health Experts, unlike other doctors, are trained in conventional, complementary, and alternative specialties. Using Dr. Diane’s 5 Prong Approach, we develop customized treatment plans based on your unique needs.

Trauma causes changes to the brain, whether it’s brain trauma, emotional trauma, or PTSD. These changes can affect hormone levels, vitamin levels, sleep cycles, and more, causing many different conditions. That is why at Dr. Diane® Brain Health, we offer collaborative brain health to get to the root cause of your issues and develop a treatment plan just for you.

Using the latest methods and cutting-edge techniques such as neurofeedback, Dr. Diane® can help you regain your life.

Schedule Your Consultation

Are you ready to relieve the pain and suffering caused by your traumatic brain injury? Contact Dr. Diane and her team of experts today, and get your life back on track.


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Find Help and Hope in Dr. Diane’s Book!

Coping with Concussion and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

If you're suffering from a concussion, or any other form of mild traumatic brain injury, pick up Dr. Diane's book Coping with Concussion and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and start healing today!


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CONTACT DR. DIANE®

Dr. Diane® Roberts Stoler, Ed.D.
7 Hodges Street
N. Andover, MA 01845
Phone: (800) 500-9971
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Within each person shines an inner light that illuminates our path and is the source of hope. Illness, trauma, suffering and grief can diminish the light and shroud hope. I am a catalyst for hope and change, offering a way to rekindle this inner light.

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