Blast Injury
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.
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.