The Role of Deployment History on the Association Between Epilepsy and Traumatic Brain Injury in Post-9/11 Era U.S. Veterans.

Deployment history had a significant differential impact on epilepsy predictors. As expected, penetrating TBI had a greater epilepsy impact among deployed Veterans perhaps due to combat/blast. Some epilepsy predictors (moderate/severe TBI, MS, Parkinson's disease) had a stronger association in the non-deployed suggesting a potential healthy warrior effect in which such conditions preclude deployment. Other neurological conditions (e.g., brain tumor, Alzheimer's disease/frontotemporal dementia) had a greater epilepsy impact in the deployed. This may be attributable to deployment related exposures (combat injury, occupational exposures). A better understanding of deployment effects is critical to provide targeted epilepsy prevention in Veterans and military service members.