Almost half of people who suffer a sports-related, traumatic brain injury (TBI) are still experiencing physical symptoms after six months, according to new research.
The study compared 256 people with sports-related concussions (5.9% of the cohort studied) to 4,104 people who sustained a concussion another way.
Patients were assessed when attending hospital immediately after their injury, then followed up at three months and six months.
Researchers found that after six months almost half (46%) were not fully recovered while there was incomplete recovery in 39 per cent of those with mild sport-related brain injury.
Experts said the findings show that sport-related concussion should be taken seriously, though it is usually thought they will have a good outcome.
Researchers also found that certain sports were more often associated with TBI with horse riding accounting for 22% of all sport-related cases studied followed by skiing (17 per cent), and football (13 per cent).
Dr Magdalena Ietswaart, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Stirling who co-authored the paper, said: “These findings caution against taking an overoptimistic view of outcomes after sport-related TBI, even if the initial injury appears mild.
“Sport-related concussion is generally thought of as quite benign and not a major source of concern because the injury is considered mild.
“This research shows that we should take sport-related concussion seriously, especially those cases that require attendance at hospital and consequent referral for brain scanning.”
Researchers found that months after the injury, persisting impairment was evident in the sports-related TBI group despite better recovery compared with non–sports-related TBI on measures of mental health and post-concussion symptoms.
PhD Researcher Michail Ntikas, of the University of Stirling’s Faculty of Natural Sciences, analysed data from 4,360 patients from 18 European countries who attended hospital with TBI and had a brain scan, with data collected between December 2014 and December 2017.
He said: “We found that people with brain injury in sports who attend hospital still have persisting problems six months later.
“Even those with a mild traumatic brain injury and a normal brain scan, sometimes also called concussion, still have problems affecting daily life six months later, showing that recovery is poorer than expected.”
The study was published in JAMA Network Open journal.
The data was collected as part of a large European Commission-funded study called Center-TBI and analysis was assisted by Dr William Stewart (University of Glasgow), Professor David Menon (University of Cambridge) and Professor Andrew Maas (University Hospital of Antwerp in Belgium).
