Yesterday, I attended Tramatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Concussion (Mild Traumatic Brain Injury mTBI) training. About 70 percent of the training was about mTBI since the majority (greater than 80 percent) of TBI is mTBI. The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center provided the training,
http://dvbic.dcoe.mil/ They discussed TBI/mTBI in military members and also athletes especially youth athletes. The links to all research articles is below along with a few related to athletes that I found interesting.
A couple items that as parents of athletes we should know.
(1) Female athletes suffer more mTBI than males (64% to 36%). Sorry, I did not write down the study just the numbers.
(2) Symptoms (headaches, sensitivity to light and sound, depression and irritability) persist in 48% of mTBI after one year (I have one link to this below). These symptoms can be continual, which is rare, or can come and go. My DD suffered a concussion last October and has said she still has occasional sensitivity to lights especially fluorescent lights. One study of military members with mTBI found that 78% of members reported irritability and depression a year after the mTBI.
(3) The current average recovery time that athletes (2015 data) return to mild activities is 7-14 days. Several studies have determined this duration is too short and an athlete that suffers mTBI (concussion) should be held out of all sports activities for 3-5 weeks. The studies had different recommendations, but they all agreed that a longer recovery time was more beneficial and reduced the risk of multiple concussion injury.
(4) The mTBI checklists used by athletic trainers (AT) during sporting events may not provide an accurate evaluation for youth athletes with mild symptoms. The recommendation was that youth athletes should receive an evaluation 6 to 24 hours following the injury. The symptoms can take a few hours to manifest, so they recommended taking the youth athlete out of all activities for a minimum of 6 hours and then have them tested. This will allow any symptoms to manifest. My DD initially only had a very mild headache, but within 5 hours post injury she had multiple symptoms. They also said that a parent or teammate should not be in the vicinity when the sideline test is administered. It should be the AT and the athlete only.
(5) All athletes should be required to have a mTBI/concussion baseline test and the results available at the field. I have the link below that shows that two baseline tests are preferred. My DD college AT had her take two baseline tests a couple days apart. When she suffered her concussion she did okay when they administered the test and compared it to her baselines, but she failed slightly in one area compared to the two baselines so they kept her out of the game. She really wanted to go back in the game, but is glad now that they did the tests and held her out.
Main page that has links to all studies:
http://dvbic.dcoe.mil/research/browse/concussion-literature?sort=field_publication_date&order=desc
http://dvbic.dcoe.mil/research/amer...-medicine-position-statement-concussion-sport
http://dvbic.dcoe.mil/research/exam...-sport-related-concussion-multimodal-clinical
http://dvbic.dcoe.mil/research/neck...ning-performance-and-sport-injury-risk-review
http://dvbic.dcoe.mil/research/two-...oving-reliability-computerized-testing-sports
http://dvbic.dcoe.mil/research/pers...ic-brain-injury-longitudinal-population-study
http://dvbic.dcoe.mil/research/risk-suicide-after-concussion