“Healing Our Soldiers,” the cover story of the February issue of National Geographic, is a searching inquiry into blast-induced traumatic brain injury—the signature injury suffered by American veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns.
Known as shell shock in World War I, the devastating malady leaves victims with symptoms that range from sleep disorders to problems with memory and cognition. Many of the symptoms of blast-related brain trauma resemble those of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complicating diagnosis.
