The Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a> (VA) linked five more illnesses to traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The good news for veterans suffering from these illnesses, as well as TBI, is that they will have an easier time getting much-needed additional disability benefits.<\/p>\n \u00a0The five conditions linked to moderate to severe TBI<\/a> were: Parkinson\u2019s disease, certain types of dementia, depression, unprovoked seizures, and certain diseases of the hypothalamus and pituitary glands.<\/p>\n \u00a0Those secondary illnesses will be considered service-connected and won\u2019t require medical opinions to establish whether there is correlation to TBI. However, the findings come with some caveats to receiving benefits.<\/p>\n The severity of a TBI must be \u201cmoderate to severe\u201d and three of the five illnesses need to manifest themselves within a certain length of time from the TBI. Dementia must manifest within 15 years of a TBI. For depression, it\u2019s three years (or 12 months for a mild TBI). For hormone deficiencies of the (more…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) linked five more illnesses to traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The good news for veterans suffering from these illnesses, as well as TBI, is that they will have an easier time getting much-needed additional disability…<\/span><\/p>\n