Saturday 22 November I975
CUMULATIVE EFFECT OF CONCUSSION
amnesia (P.T.A.) for the curh. 24 of Details the injury previous injury were not available in some cases, but no patient had remained in hospital for more than 7 days, and there had been no evident residual disability. Time since the earlier concussion ranged from 5 months to 8 years (mean 4.5 years). Four patients had had more than one previous head injury. Two subgroups were formed, with ten consecutive admissions for each subgroup: mild multiple concussion (MM) with a P.T.A. of less than an hour, and moderately severe multiple concussion (SM) with a P.T.A. of 1-24 h (mean 4-9 h).
toma.
The
rent
D. GRONWALL
P. WRIGHTSON
Department of Neurosurgery, Auckland Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand were studied after second concussion. The rate at which they were able to process information was reduced more than in controls who had been concussed only once, and they took longer to recover than the controls. The effects of concussion seem to be cumulative, and this has important implications for sports where concussion injury is common.
Summary
Twenty young adults a
Introduction STANDARD accounts of concussion describe loss of consciousness at the instant of head trauma, return to alertness within an hour or two, though with a period of amnesia, and complete recovery in a few days without objective sequelaa. Such accounts provide no basis for the troublesome symptoms which persist in about 10% of cases-the "post-concussion syndrome"-which some, therefore, have ascribed to neurosis. We have shown, however, that concussion produces a persisting objective deficit, a decrease in the rate of information processing.’1 The rate usually returns to normal in about a month, but may be reduced for longer, when symptoms of the post-concussional syndrome may develop.We found that some patients who had been concussed for a second time showed a greater decrease in rate of information processing and recovered more slowly than usual. We have further investigated this finding, by studying the effects of concussion on two groups of young adults, differing only in that one had a past history of closed head
injury. Patients and Methods All patients studied were aged 16-26 years, had of psychiatric illness, were not taking psychotropic had no relevant medical history.
history drugs, and no
Multiple Concussion Groups (M) Twenty patients with concussion and a history of previous head injury were studied. Neither injury had resulted in skull fracture nor was there evidence of cerebral contusion or haema7943
longest post-traumatic was
Control Groups (C)
Mild control (MC) (P.T.A.
CUMULATIVE EFFECT OF CONCUSSION
amnesia (P.T.A.) for the curh. 24 of Details the injury previous injury were not available in some cases, but no patient had remained in hospital for more than 7 days, and there had been no evident residual disability. Time since the earlier concussion ranged from 5 months to 8 years (mean 4.5 years). Four patients had had more than one previous head injury. Two subgroups were formed, with ten consecutive admissions for each subgroup: mild multiple concussion (MM) with a P.T.A. of less than an hour, and moderately severe multiple concussion (SM) with a P.T.A. of 1-24 h (mean 4-9 h).
toma.
The
rent
D. GRONWALL
P. WRIGHTSON
Department of Neurosurgery, Auckland Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand were studied after second concussion. The rate at which they were able to process information was reduced more than in controls who had been concussed only once, and they took longer to recover than the controls. The effects of concussion seem to be cumulative, and this has important implications for sports where concussion injury is common.
Summary
Twenty young adults a
Introduction STANDARD accounts of concussion describe loss of consciousness at the instant of head trauma, return to alertness within an hour or two, though with a period of amnesia, and complete recovery in a few days without objective sequelaa. Such accounts provide no basis for the troublesome symptoms which persist in about 10% of cases-the "post-concussion syndrome"-which some, therefore, have ascribed to neurosis. We have shown, however, that concussion produces a persisting objective deficit, a decrease in the rate of information processing.’1 The rate usually returns to normal in about a month, but may be reduced for longer, when symptoms of the post-concussional syndrome may develop.We found that some patients who had been concussed for a second time showed a greater decrease in rate of information processing and recovered more slowly than usual. We have further investigated this finding, by studying the effects of concussion on two groups of young adults, differing only in that one had a past history of closed head
injury. Patients and Methods All patients studied were aged 16-26 years, had of psychiatric illness, were not taking psychotropic had no relevant medical history.
history drugs, and no
Multiple Concussion Groups (M) Twenty patients with concussion and a history of previous head injury were studied. Neither injury had resulted in skull fracture nor was there evidence of cerebral contusion or haema7943
longest post-traumatic was
Control Groups (C)
Mild control (MC) (P.T.A.
