Concussions And Post Traumatic Stress Disor

Concussions can truly mess with an athlete’s brain and can give him or her lifelong troubles.

Head injuries, including concussions, particularly in the game of American football, have become a subject of deep concern, much study and even Congressional hearings in the United States.

Football is one of the most beloved sports in the United States. It is one of the most violent bone crushing sports, leaving players permanently injured for life in some cases. The most common injury that football players suffer from pee-wee through the NFL is the concussion. A concussion is a traumatic brain injury that changes the way your brain works. The effects of a concussion are usually temporary and can result in a full recovery if its minor and treated correctly. A concussion can lead to brain problems later in life, even after a player has finished playing football. This is why people are studying and trying to understand concussions fully in order to prevent and treat future ones. Concussions are very

Athletes in the 21st century are pushing themselves and their teammates to their limit, to try and be the best they can. Whether that is in a game situation, weight room, or practicing on the field, pool, or gym, accidents happen and can happen anywhere. It doesn’t matter if you are a guy or a girl, this accident happens to many athletes in a variety of sports. This sports injury is a concussion and it truly does affect any kind of athlete in any kind of sport. Concussions aren’t acquired in every sport, but they can happen. In the last few years concussions have become a growing problem for athletes from high school to professional athletes. Are concussions as bad as doctors and the news are making them out to be?

However, after years of research and experimenting scientist are starting to untie the blindfold that football coaches and analysts have tied around the eyes of society to hide the true damage of concussions. Part of the reason concussions are not taken seriously is because on television no one ever bothers to explain what is truly happening inside the brain of a concussed person, the injury is just said to be a hit or blow to the head. Yet, what most people do not know is a concussion is actually when the brain is offset which causes the chemical balance in the brain to fluctuate and damage/kill brain cells. In their article, “Concussions and Repercussions”, Donald Redelmeier and Sheharyar Raza discuss the long term effects of only one concussion. They express that one concussion “can damage hundreds of neurons and millions of synapses, thereby contributing to subsequent depression, irritability, impulsivity, or suicidal ideation”(Redelmeier and Raza par 1). Neurons and synapses are vitally important to the function of not only the brain but the entire human body as well. Neurons act as the messenger of the brain by

There are multiple symptoms associated with the receiving of a concussion, but there are three that are outstandingly common among the general population of victims of concussions. Those include sensory changes and deficits, emotional difficulties like depression, and an overall reduction in cognitive functioning. According to Moore, Broglio, and Hillman, a concussion is defined as “a complex pathophysiological process affecting the brain, induced by traumatic biomechanics forces.” Sport-Related Concussion and Sensory Function in Young Adults Simply stated, this means that a concussion is an injury that results from a traumatic blow to the brain. In recent years, concussions have been a popular topic in the media. Whether it be with regards

In every sports season 5 to 20 percent of kids suffer a concussion(Jeremy Olson 1SH). A concussion is a type of brain injury that mostly occurs when playing in contact sports. Most people do not think concussions are a big deal but they are. In fact concussions can lead to suicide because they cause your brain to not function correctly, especially when having more than one. Not only can they lead to suicide but they also have many long term effects on the brain. I am sure on television, many viewers have seen big collisions where somebody gets a hard hit to the head. It is most likely that person suffered a concussion. Since concussions occur naturally in

A concussion is an mTBI that affects brain function and is caused by a single blow or violent shaking of the head or upper body (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2017). Most sport-related head injuries are minor and although the majority of athletes who suffer a concussion recover within a few days or weeks, a small number of individuals develop long-lasting or progressive symptoms. This is especially true in cases of repetitive concussion or mTBI in which at least 17% of individuals develop CTE (McKee et al., 2015). The incidence rates recorded thus far for concussions is highly likely to be a very conservative number and seriously under-estimates the true incidence. Reasons for this being that: a) reports by associations tend to only record athletes who experience a loss of consciousness (LOC) and b) players and coaches usually lack awareness of or minimize symptoms of

Concussions In Sports Head injuries have been in the news lately because of the many side effects and the dangers they can have on a person's mental health. The most common head injury today is a concussion. A concussion happens when a person has a traumatic blow to the head causing the brain to whiplash against a person’s skull. This is such a big issue because there is so much unknown about everything. For example, many famous football players that have died have been diagnosed with a disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy such as Frank Gifford, Mike Webster, and Dave Duerson.

Concussions, a type of traumatic brain injury, are a frequent concern for those playing sports, from children and teenagers to professional athletes. Repeated concussions are a known cause of various neurological disorders, most notably chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which in professional athletes has led to premature retirement, erratic behavior and even suicide. Over 1.6 million Americans have sustained concussion-related injuries. Because concussions cannot be seen on X-rays or CT scans, attempts to prevent concussions have been difficult.

First, I am going to talk about the science behind concussions, CTE, and why it is such an issue for a football player. Concussions are very damaging to the brain and experiencing a lot of them can lead to CTE. I will also discuss people that influenced the understanding of concussions and CTE. In 2002, a neurologist named Dr. Bennet Omalu tried to tell the NFL about the brain damage he found while doing a former NFL player’s autopsy, but the NFL did not really listen. In 2009, another researcher by the name of Dr. Ann Mckee tried to get the NFL’s attention about her concerns about football players and concussions as well. The NFL once again ignored these assumptions. However, the NFL did listen to Dr. Elliot Pellman, who told the league as early as 1994, that concussions were not a big problem and just part of the game. I will discuss how NFL players were treated when they got their “bell rung” during a big game; and what kind of medical treatment they

In medical terms, concussions are described as "a complex pathophysiologic process affecting the brain, induced by traumatic biomechanical forces" (Hunt, Paniccia, Reed, & Keightley, 2016, p. 749). Over the past couple of years, the number of concussions in athletics has increased drastically. According to the data released by the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, in the school year 2005-06 there were 133,000 concussions, which was much less than the recent data of the 2014-15 school year of 292,000 (Brzycki, 2016, p. 57). Not only are concussions becoming more prominent, but they accounted for 24.5% of all the injuries in 2014-15 (Brzycki, 2016, p. 57). Although many advances in concussion protocol have been

Billions of dollars have been spilled into concussion research. One thing that has been proven through this research is that football players face the greatest risk of concussions. This includes all sports, even NCAA and NFL football. Helmets nowadays all have a warning that reads similar to: NO HELMET SYSTEM CAN PROTECT YOU FROM SERIOUS BRAIN AND/OR NECK INJURIES INCLUDING PARALYSIS OR DEATH. TO AVOID THESE RISKS, DO NOT ENGAGE IN THE SPORT OF FOOTBALL. Many people with ties to football argue that the benefits of football significantly outweigh the risks associated. Football people know that concussions can’t be eliminated totally, but they do believe that concussions can be slowed by proper tackling techniques as well as better technology. Even though football may lead to neurodegenerative brain diseases, the benefits of football far and away outweigh these inherited risks.

As a nation that loves competition, the United States has become obsessed with sports. This obsession has allowed professional sports leagues to generate billions of dollars of revenue each year. The one sport that stands on top is football generating around 13 billion dollars a year. This even surpasses “America’s Pastime,” baseball. One of the reasons the sport has been able to succeed so much is from the sport’s violent nature, which attracts many fans looking for big hits. But unfortunately with big hits come injuries, one of the most common injuries being a concussion (injury to the brain caused by a hard hit on the head). In the United States alone over 300,000 concussions occur annually. That includes high school and college athletes.

There are many people in the United States that sustain traumatic brain injuries each year. Despite similar signs and symptoms, there are no two “acute” concussions that present the same, nor do they always or ever have the same outcomes. A TBI can present much differently when you are comparing children and adults, mainly for the fact that adults have more mature tissues and brain structure versus children having immature, developing tissues. Post-concussion syndrome is a common issue that people develop after suffering from a concussion or TBI. Post-concussion syndrome (PCS) is when you suffer from symptoms that have not gone away or healed from the injury. PCS can last from a few months to even years after the initial injury. Although PCS is deemed recoverable, there is always a possibility of long term consequences. There are many degenerative diseases that are related to head trauma, whether that be subconcussive or concussive injuries. Some of neurodegenerative diseases that are associated with head trauma are: Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Many of the signs and symptoms for each disease sometimes overlap with other diseases, specifically overlapping with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. At one point in history concussions were not seen as a big deal, until researchers realized that there are many long term consequences that come into play when a traumatic brain injury occurs. The consequences may not be present at the time of the injury, but many years down the road developing a neurodegenerative disease because of the excessive repetitive brain trauma is extremely concerning. The rate of concussions for youth needs to decrease. This could be possible by implementing new rules or regulations for different sports and extracurricular