Battleland

Military Migraines

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Combat gets blamed for all sorts of ills. Some are obvious, like physical wounds. Others are less visible, and range from traumatic brain injury to post-traumatic stress disorder. Well, “deployment to southwest Asia” – that would be Afghanistan and/or Iraq –apparently also triggers headaches.

“Factors that appeared to be associated with increased incidence of migraine or other headache disorders included deployment itself,” a new Pentagon medical report says. It notes that in 2010, 4% of military personnel visited health-care providers because of headaches. “The burdens of health care and lost duty time associated with headache,” the reported concludes, “are substantial.”