Neuropsychological deficits in scuba divers: an exploratory investigation.

[DocVikingo]

This eventually could shed light on the behavior of some of our board members ; )

"Undersea Hyperb Med. 2011 May-Jun;38(3):197-204.

Neuropsychological deficits in scuba divers: an exploratory investigation.

Kowalski JT, Varn A, Rottger S, Seidack S, Kahler' W, Gerber WD, Andrasik F, Koch A.

Source

German Naval Medical Institute, Kronshagen, Germany. jenskowalski@bundeswehr.de

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To investigate whether divers with varying levels of experience and without a history of reported decompression sickness (DCS) show neuropsychometric alterations possibly as a result of so-called repetitive "silent" paradoxical gas embolisms.

METHODS:

Using reaction time as a psychometric measure, 17 experienced military divers (ED, logging between 150 and 1,200 diving hours) and eight very experienced military divers (VED, logging between 2,800 and 9,800 diving hours) with no decompression sickness (DCS) in their medical histories were compared to 23 healthy controls without any diving history, matched as closely as possible with respect to age for the two diving groups. Motor reaction time, decision reaction time and error rates were measured during completion of both simple and complex reaction time tasks.

RESULTS:

Compared to their control group, VED showed significantly higher motor reaction times on both tasks and significantly higher decision reaction times in the complex task. ED were not found to be different from their respective controls. No changes in performance quality in terms of increased errors were observed in any of the tasks for either diving group.

CONCLUSIONS:

The findings support the proposed possibility that minimal cerebral lesions occur after diving even without DCS. Further studies with this highly selective population of very experienced divers using more elaborate neurocognitive and neuromotor tasks seem warranted."

 

[Insta-Gator]

Over thinking?

 

[vladimir]

I have IQ to spare, but some of you guys in double digits probably ought to reassess your recreational choices.

 

[Saturation]

Thanks for the update. Minor [ major leads to obvious impairment] neurocognitive deficits and changes in divers MRI have been known for many years, and proportionate to the total number of lifetime dives, but life long consequences is unknown, that is, does it create a mental invalid of some sort? There are many old 'normal' acting divers who dove under doing more unsafe practices than today.

Its another reason, as I've posted in the past, to advocate for zero bubbling, at least by audible doppler, after dives. Its not simply a question of DCI, but of reducing other forms of bubble associated morbidity. Note, with echocardiography, even smaller bubbles can be seen, but I'm making an educated guess that if the bubbles are <= RBC in diameter, it cannot cause embolic injury.

For many years I would draw a comprehensive metabolic panel on myself within 24-48 hours after a dive holiday and note a lot of abnormals in LFTs and CK, it resolves very rapidly, so if you'd take it past that timespan it will be lost. Its also proportionate to the dive level, tech dives cause higher values of abnormals. Newman reported this on his series in NEJM related total CK to CAGE, and its been known for sometime but not related to anything. Further, with DCI patients, the values are far more elevated too; they thus are nonspecific markers but can be followed to parallel symptom resolution. They can't be all from muscle exertion because it resolves too rapidly, almost proportionate to the rate of clearance of bubbles, so I'm guessing its related to gas emboli in muscle tissue.

 

[Insta-Gator]

If you understand the post above, you haven't hit the "diving too deep, too long" threshold yet

 

[Sinbad Scuba]

Hilarious. All divers need to be a bit crazy. Look at what we are doing as a hobby!