Navy Community - discussions, photos, video - Navy Times

Services aim to curb cheating on brain-injury test

Troops in Iraq and elsewhere have tried to avoid being pulled out of combat units by cheating on problem-solving tests that are used to spot traumatic brain injuries, military doctors say.

New versions of the tests were sent to Iraq in late October to prevent the cheating, said Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Jaffee of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center in Washington.

“With highly motivated individuals, be they athletes, be they our service members in harm’s way, there is a motivation to stay with the unit and stay on the job or in the game,” he said.

The tests, administered by medics in the field, are the military’s primary means of uncovering subtle signs of brain injuries from exposure to blasts.

Reports of cheating surfaced in Iraq during the summer, said Army Col. Brian Eastridge, a trauma surgeon who supervises medical care in Afghanistan and Iraq from his office in Baghdad.

Troops had obtained copies of an older version of the test and memorized key words used to gauge short-term memory, Jaffee said. Those who fail areas of the test undergo more sophisticated exams. If symptoms persist, troops are sent home. If symptoms improve in days or a few weeks, patients can be sent back into combat, doctors said.

At Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, the first stop for all troops evacuated from Iraq or Afghanistan for medical reasons, cheating was found in a handful of cases about four months ago, said Army Col. Stephen Flaherty, the hospital’s chief of surgery.

Words were substituted to stop the cheating, Flaherty said.

“We’re just trying to protect them, make sure they are healthy and get back to fully functional status as soon as possible,” he said.

Earlier in the war, Jaffee said, doctors saw some cheating, particularly among Marines at Camp Pendleton, Calif., where testing started in 2004.

By cheating, he said, troops risk “[being] exposed to a second concussion or mild traumatic brain injury. It could have more devastating effects, not only on their health, but on the mission’s success, or perhaps on the safety of the people on their patrol.”

About one-third of war casualties brought to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington have some form of brain injury, Army records show.

The Pentagon lists 4,471 brain-injured casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan, but the actual number is likely higher because many cases go undetected.

The most common are mild injuries from being close to an explosion from a roadside bomb, mortar round or grenade. Eighty percent of wounds to troops in Iraq are caused by explosions, Jaffee said.

New versions of the brain-injury screening test are arriving in Iraq and will be delivered to medics, Eastridge said.