Post Concussive Headaches: Chief Complaint

Another factor that has been discussed is that recurrent concussion can increase the risk of poor outcome following mild TBI. For example, Guskiewicz et al (2007) examined the relationship between depression and recurrent concussion in retired professional football players, and they found that players who endorse three or more concussion ware three times more likely to be diagnosed with depression as compared with those who have no history of recurrent concussion. They also found that 31.1% of players, who had three or more previous concussions, reported impairment in their thinking and memory when they become older as compared with 11.5% of those how had one or two previous injury. However, this study was criticized by ICoMP team because it had a high risk of bias, and they provide evidence to suggest that recurrent concussion may not increase the risk of PCS especially when it occur again during the same match or season in professional players’ population (Cancelliere et al, 2014). In addition, Miller, Ivins, & Schwab (2013) found that previous experience of mTBI can increase the number of symptoms that soldiers reported within 3 months after the injury, yet the symptoms appear to be recover after this period.

or two minutes and did not lose consciousness. After 30 minutes the athlete reported nausea,

The patient denies having any history of CNS infection or already significant systemic infections. He has never had any thunderclap headaches, or any left-sided neurological symptoms. He does recall having a marked headache during the flight in the 1980s and one recent exertion-induced headache last fall, lasting 15 minutes. Otherwise, he gets mild headaches and aches and pains for which he does occasionally take aspirin. There is no family history of aneurysms. His father did die of a brain tumor, which the patient called the primary "Astro something". It was not metastatic. The patient says his ENT is aware of the nasopharyngeal mass and has called it polyps. The patient also has history of bradycardia and occasionally when he takes his pulse and he finds that it is irregular. He has an evaluation with a cardiologist coming up to rule out atrial fibrillation. He also has a family history of what may be a benign essential tremor. His father a couple of paternal uncles had this tremor. He has had it for years. It has slowly increased over the years, but it still is intermittent to high frequency, low amplitude, mostly action

Concussions cause CTE and CTE causes people in their 40’s to feel like they're 80 physically and mentally. The NFL however doesn’t tell you how bad CTE is because then people wouldn’t play football. This topic has caused problems for the NFL for 10 years now and it’s something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Depending on its severity, as little as one concussion can cause significant brain damage, over the course of the injured person’s lifetime, and he may not even know it is happening.

Athletes should have to sit out longer due to head injuries because sometimes they can have memory lost due to concussions, about 300,000 kids have concussions every year, and the concussions are long lasting. There are so many contact sports now and some peoples life's are on the line sometimes. They could also become paralyzed depending on how hard they are hit and where they are hit. It's not just concussions it's broken bones and hurting yourself.

In the sports world today, there are many different injuries that athletes experience and one of the most devastating injury is a concussion. Concussions can happen to anyone, in any sport, but we tend to see most concussions in contact sports (Świerzewski 1). While having an informal conversation with my dad about football, he told me it was common for athletes to receive a head injury in a game and continue to play as if nothing was wrong. While watching SportsCenter, I found that some of the greatest retired athletes don’t remember the best moments of their careers due to the lack of treatment. The worst aspect of concussions is that the symptoms can be delayed; in some cases, it’s only a headache so athletes don’t seek medical treatment. Multiple concussions over time can lead to life-threatening complications due to the damage they cause to the brain. Concussions can happen to anybody at anytime, but there is more to concussions than meets the eye.

“Meh, what’s some brain damage gonna hurt”, was a quote that ultimately lead to the death of John McCrae athlete, Rowan Stringer. She was known to be a “leader” and an “amazing rugby player” on her school varsity rugby team according to various sources. The concept that shocks me the most is that she died from second impact syndrome, revealing her brave, yet poor decision that resulted in her unfortunate death. As you can see, concussions can be life threatening. In order to appropriately handle a concussion, one must be aware of the symptoms of a concussion, how to deal with concussions, and the consequences of concussions.

Many people hear the word “concussion” and think of it as being just a simple headache; however, not many know the significant health consequences associated with receiving a concussion. Concussions can have a variety of adverse effects on a person, some of which include sensory changes and deficits, emotional difficulties like depression, and an overall reduction in cognitive functioning. Abnormal eye movements and a reduced sense of touch are examples of sensory changes and deficits that are common with concussions. Individuals on the receiving end of concussions also deal with emotional difficulties including depression and even certain forms of guilt. Reduction in overall cognitive

Nathaniel Vinton. “Concussions are on the rise in the NFL: League releases data that shows 58% increase in regular season concussions” New York Daily News, 30 January 2015. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/concussions-rise-nfl-league-data-reveals-article-1.2513828

If concussions are related to permanent brain damage, then the amount of time spent in recovery should be increased, as supplying ample amount of time will provide reassurance that the brain has healed for athletes who recover quickly and for athletes who naturally need more time to recover.

Concussions lead to many different symptoms and are caused by many hits to the head. Any ages can suffer from a concussion. All players found to have C.T.E have committed suicide and hundreds more suffer from long term brain damage. While television can be educational, start kids later on in age because your brain is still developing till age 14 and it can shorten your attention span.

two concussions, then a third is 2-4 times more likely, and if they 've had three concussions, then

Concussions and their side effects are traumatic to any player of the National Football League, not just at the time of the incident, but symptoms can last a lifetime and can in reality end a career. Results of these concussions not only affect themselves but the people around them including loved ones. “Since 2012 there have been 967 diagnosed concussions, and that includes preseason, regular-season practices plus games and postseason” (CNN 2014). Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), develops after multiple traumatic brain injuries and have led to former players and current to commit suicide. “Junior Seau, 43, a former linebacker shot himself in the chest, former Atlanta safety Ray Easterling, and former Chicago Bears defensive back Dave Duerson commits suicide by gunshot wound to the chest” (CNN 2014). Rather than shoot his head they shot themselves in the chest so that their brain can be used in Concussion and CTE research. Once a player gets a concussion, the likelihood of another increases, so and so forth. However, it is not just a running back or a nose tackle that can get this horrific injury, its anyone, it could be a kicker, a coach on the sideline; anyone that hits the ground too hard, or has head to head contact. Though the National Football League has become aware of this injury over the years and have implemented many protocols, that is not enough. This is a

Approximately 10% of athletes take longer than seven days to fully recover from a concussion (article 1), but they still go back to the playing field before reaching that point. This is very dangerous and is mostly due to the fact that athletes, especially males, do not report their symptoms in fear of being sat out for a long period of time (article 1). It is understood that often if a person isn't feeling like they are experiencing any major symptoms then they might not want to be held back from participating in their normal activities. A concussion starts out as an "invisible" injury and can become majorly serious as time goes on if not properly handled and treated. An intelligent decision would be to have the concussed athlete monitored by someone, such as their coach, before a physician can give the athlete permission to return to the playing field

Participation in any athletic activity directly increases risk of injury.Throughout this research, many of the sources have provided information about the methods of preventing a concussion, different types of concussions or brain injuries, and medical treatments for concussions. Many athletes today receive concussions when participating in sports, mainly football and soccer. Some ways to prevent a concussion from happening would be to wear protective gear, and watching your eating habits, as this can lead to an occurrence of a concussion (Halstead). Concussions are a major public health issue and many athletes may face the risk of receiving a concussion. A concussion is a clinical syndrome of symptoms and signs occurring after biomechanical force is imparted to the brain. The different types of concussions or brain injuries include mild traumatic brain injury, postconcussion symptoms, postconcussion syndrome,which is the symptoms after receiving a concussion, chronic neurocognitive impairment, subconcussive injury, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Cervical Trauma Syndrome, the neck pain and stiffness after receiving the concussion, and Cerebral Palsy, which causes loss of function and mobility (Hecimovich). For people who receive concussions and have to attend school, there is a new program specifically in Guilford County Schools named “Return to Learn Method for concussions”. This program is considered to be a method to assist people who have received a concussion from playing a sport to get back on track, refresh their minds and try and remember the material they have learned. Another reason why this program would be an important method after receiving a concussion would be for the simple fact that it would help the student recover and relieve the pain in their head. Depending on how severe the athlete got hit in the head, this would determine whether the athlete has a slight headache, or a severe head injury that would require full treatment. When an athlete gets critical damage to the head, then this would possibly lead to a severe brain injury and would cause the athlete to suffer from many symptoms like headaches, fuzzy or blurry vision, dizziness, sensitivity to noise or light, balance problems,