Forensic psychiatrist Stephen Raffle, MD, based in Kentfield, CA, provides expert testimony in court cases involving personal injury. A resident of Kentfield, CA, Stephen Raffle, MD, has studied the effects of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), including concussions.
Research indicates that persons who have experienced concussions have greater than usual problems dealing with lost sleep. The study suggests that patients with TBI had slower reaction times and made more wrong moves after sleep deprivation, compared to a control group.
TBI is a significant problem for combat veterans - explosions and proximity to guns being fired exact a toll on performance. The extreme stress of modern warfare exacerbates the effects of concussions.
Experiment volunteers with a history of concussions were kept awake for 40 hours and compared to sleep-deprived persons with no history of TBI. After they caught up on their sleep, researchers tested their reaction times through a prompt on a computer screen.
Lag times of the concussed individuals were 100 milliseconds longer than persons without TBI. Although the delay seems small, it could have serious consequences in combat. The lack of deep sleep meant their bodies had less time to restore themselves.
The author of the study concluded that since military tactics were not going to change, science would have to find better ways to treat sleep deprivation.
