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Comment by Noseshine | Hacker News Reader

In this context, about PTSD: "What if PTSD Is More Physical Than Psychological?"

    > A new study supports what a small group of military researchers
    > has suspected for decades: that modern warfare destroys the brain.

Cause: Brain injuries stemming from blast exposure.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/magazine/what-if-ptsd-is-m...

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I suppose a better synopsis would have been that there may be a set of injuries that result from physical trauma to the brain, that can be conflated with war-induced PTSD. But as people that suffer trauma without serious head injuries exhibit some of the same traits as those that are associated with PTSD, it's not really about PTSD in general being physical (as in result of external physical trauma, as opposed to physical changes in the brain, which can often result from eg: depression "alone").

But it is certainly interesting that "just" being subject to such physical abuse could lead to conditions similar to that of PTSD.

    > that suffer trauma without serious head injuries

You didn't read or you didn't understand the article.

The injuries they are talking about are invisible unless you put the brain under a microsocope.

I meant trauma in the sense of head injury/head trauma -- a concussion is usually first diagnosed by secondary effects, not by "looking at the brain" as far I am aware.

Perhaps I should've said "head trauma without visible/apparent injuries to the head". Sorry for the confusion. I only meant to contrast the micro-injuries that these new studies reference with the also real physical changes that often accompany "purely" psychological conditions.

    > I meant trauma in the sense of head injury/head trauma

Yes? I linked an article with a specific subject and contents. I would expect replies to somehow relate to that (article).

I don't think it needs to be said that "PTSD" is not a specific condition but a word that collects a large variety of them. The article is quite clear in describing what it is about.

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