Wednesday, September 8, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 5
5
Concussions in youth cause problems for adults
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Two or more significant blows to the head while playing sports can harm teen-agers' thinking abilities for years to come, according to studies that suggest such injuries are more serious than some coaches and parents might think.
Nearly 63,000 high school athletes a year suffer mild concussions, researchers reported in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. Young athletes with learning disorders appear to suffer even worse long-term problems from multiple concussions.
"This is a major public health issue that has been given short shrift," said Michael W. Collins, a neuropsychologist at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit and a leader of one of the studies." And this is information parents should know."
Most people still believe that a concussion means getting knocked out, he said. But a concussion is any alteration in mental function after a blow to the head. Signs or symptoms may be subtle
a headache, dizziness, difficulty with balance or memory, confusion or a personality change.
One of the studies did not explore the effects of concussions but only how often they occurred in football, wrestling, soccer, basketball, softball, baseball, field hockey and volleyball at 235 high schools nationwide from 1995-96 through 1997-98.
There were 1,219 concussions — 63 percent of them in football and 99 students suffered two or more, said researchers led by John W. Powell, a professor of kinesiology and an athletic trainer at Michigan State University.
The researchers estimated that more than 62,800 concussions occurred among high school students nationwide annually in the sports they studied.
It has long been known that multiple mild concussions are more likely than a single episode to lead to long-term problems, and Collins tried to measure the difference in his study.
His research involved 393 college football players and found that about one in three had suffered a
concussion at some time in the past and one in five had suffered two or more.
Those who had suffered two or more were significantly more likely to report continuing problems with headaches, sleep and concentration, and they scored significantly worse on paper-and-pencil tests of the ability to learn words, to think quickly and to handle complex tasks. A complex task in the real world would be cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner, for example.
Players who had learning disorders — 13.5 percent of the sample — fared even worse if they had two or more concussions, suggesting that the disorders make the brain especially vulnerable to jarring injuries. About 12 percent of all collegians have learning disorders, research has shown.
"If they have a learning disability, if they have one concussion, you should be a lot more cautious in returning them to game conditions and practices after their first concussion," said Jeffrey T. Barth, chief of medical psychology and neuropsychology at the University of Virginia, an expert not involved
in the studies.
He said the research on the prevalence of concussions among high school students confirmed previous work but was by far the largest study. It highlights a problem that has been kind of ignored during the years. Most emphasis on managing concussion has been at college and pro levels, he said.
Animal research suggests the youthful brain remains vulnerable after a first concussion for a longer time than a mature brain does, so a high school athlete may need a much longer recovery time from a concussion before returning to play than a college player or a pro. Barth said.
A third article in the journal reported that amateur soccer players scored lower on tests of memory and planning than other amateur athletes did, and that repeated blows to the head may be the culprit.
While some research has implicated "heading" the ball, Barth and other experts believe the more likely explanation is the frequent collisions between players and players' heads hitting the ground or a goalpost.
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