Certainly.
At this point the updated first number is over 600,000, but every veteran who has served in Iraq or Afghanistan or who has left the Department of Defense since September 11, 2001, and who accesses the VA for care is screened. We screen everyone who comes in the door. The four-question screen was meant to cast a wide net. The purpose is to identify veterans who may need assistance. The screen is very sensitive but not very specific, so there are false positives, individuals who are identified but who may not have had a traumatic brain injury.
The challenge with TBI is that none of the symptoms is individually specific for traumatic brain injury. The symptoms are typically memory problems, headaches, dizziness, or confusion, which can occur in a variety of different illnesses or impairments. The screen was really meant to identify those individuals who are symptomatic, to have them see a specialist to receive an appropriate diagnosis, and then to develop an appropriate treatment plan. So although only 7.8% of the entire population receives a diagnosis, the screen is identifying those individuals who are symptomatic and who need care.