War breaks the soldier and even the survivor is marked for life. This ancient theme echoes through history, from the Odyssey to the present.

After World War I, when millions of young men returned home with psychological disabilities, there was a boom in interest about the effects of war on the minds of the survivors. In Germany, the prominent neurologist Max Nonne treated patients with "hysteria" using hypnosis, as seen in this marveluous film, with Nonne as a medical demigod controlling a poor young veteran.

In our days, the interest is again rising about the effects of war on the brain of the survivors. Military veterans are known to at high risk for anxiety, memory problems, and perhaps even dementia. These issues were brought into focus after the Gulf War, when thousands of soldiers may have been exposed to nerve agents and toxic gases from the burning fields. We do not know exactly what happened in Iraq during that time, but american soldiers who were potentially exposed to nerve agents or oil well fires have increased risk for brain cancer, but their risk for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's or ALS, are not generally increased according to available data.

Recently, there has been a shift in focus from harmful exposure to toxins, towards the risk for veterans to develop PTSD and progressive cognitive problems, even dementia. It should come as no surprise that people who participate in warfare are at increased risk for psychiatric problems, whether it is called "hysteria" or PTSD, but the increased risk for dementia may be a (at least partly) separate phenomenon, which is likely related to the presence of traumatic brain injury.

The link between traumatic brain injury and accumulation of toxic proteins, as seen in many neurodegenerative diseases, is definitely a "hot topic" of research. This converges, by the way, with research on hockey players and american football players, who may experience similar problems, leading to increased dementia risk. And this is of course true also for boxing and other martial arts with frequent blows to the head.