Head trauma and concussion in football players have recently received considerable media attention. Postmortem evidence suggests that accrual of damage to the brain may occur with repeated blows to the head, even when the individual blows fail to produce clinical symptoms. There is an urgent need for improved detection and characterization of head trauma to reduce future injury risk and promote...

UNLABELLED Abstract Objective: To assess the characteristics of current clinical trials investigating the treatment of concussion. BACKGROUND Recent systematic literature reviews have concluded that there is minimal evidence to support any specific treatment for concussion, including the principles of return-to-activity protocols such as type or duration of rest. DESIGN/METHODS Clinical tri...

CASTING THE NET WIDE The current consensus definition provides a broad clinicopathological description of concussion. It encompasses the wide range of clinical presentations that result from traumatic forces transmitted to the brain. In its most literal interpretation, any post-traumatic symptom or sign fits the definition of concussion. Consequently, the current definition has high sensitivity...

During the past decade, there has been a tremendous amount of research that has provided an increased understanding of the underlying pathophysiology and far-reaching clinical implications of concussion as a form of traumatic brain injury. In addition, there has been a huge surge of interest in and awareness of concussions, in part due to high-profile cases involving professional athletes. Thes...

CONTEXT Depressed mood is frequently reported by individuals who have sustained cerebral concussion but little is known about the nature of this alteration in mood state. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the symptoms of depression reflect an ongoing pathophysiological change following concussion. DESIGN Cohort study with male athletes using functional and structural neuroimaging. SETTING ...

One of the most commonly reported injuries in children who participate in sports is concussion or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Children and youth involved in organized sports such as competitive hockey are nearly six times more likely to suffer a severe concussion compared to children involved in other leisure physical activities. While the most common cognitive sequelae of mTBI appear s...

A major impediment to improving the treatment of concussion is our current inability to identify patients that will experience persistent problems after the injury. Recently, brain-derived exosomes, which cross the blood-brain barrier and circulate following injury, have shown great potential as a noninvasive biomarker of brain recovery. However, clinical use of exosomes has been constrained by...

Forty-four consecutive patients with concussion for whom a medico-legal report had been written were followed up for 3-4 years after their accidents. Three cases were still pending at the end of the study. Fifty-seven per cent complained of symptoms when the medico-legal reports were written (mean interval from accident 12.9 months), 39% had symptoms at the time of settlement (mean interval 22....

An affective, somatic, and memory check-list of symptoms was administered to subjects who had no personal experience or knowledge of head injury. Subjects indicated their current experiences of symptoms, then imagined having sustained a mild head injury in a motor vehicle accident, and endorsed symptoms they expected to experience six months after the injury. The checklist of symptoms was also ...

Over the past decade, significant advances have been made in understanding concussions. Information regarding proper identification, pathophysiology, risks, outcomes, and management protocols has shifted the treatment paradigm from a generalized grading system to an individualized approach. Early identification and timely management of a concussion is necessary to ensure that patients minimize ...