Now that the seasonal football craze is starting to subside, perhaps I can safely bring up one of the downsides of this popular national sport. As a neurologist, when I think football, I can't help but think concussion. It doesn't mean I can't enjoy a good football game. I just also remember the possible consequences.
While we come across the term a lot, it turns out there's no small amount of controversy about what constitutes a concussion, what risks are associated with concussion, and how the disorder can best be treated. Concussion is considered a form of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Briefly, a concussion involves a head injury associated with some change in consciousness. This does not have to be a loss of consciousness as is often believed--a period of confusion or altered awareness also counts. In addition, many other symptoms can be associated with concussion.
Some have found it helpful to divide the impairments after mTBI into three categories:
1) somatic consequences. These include headache, nausea, and sleep disturbances.
2) cognitive dysfunction. Examples include slower thinking and difficulty paying attention.
3) emotion and behavior: this includes depression, irritability, and impulsivity.
These symptoms can affect any person at any age. Furthermore, multiple concussions can lead to premature dementia, and while it's probably rare, even one concussion may lead to lasting side effects in some people. You can learn more about concussion and other forms of traumatic brain injury this week, starting here: Could You Have Postconcussive Syndrome?
So far, I’ve managed to be the cause of getting a blow to the head. No one has hit me!
I stumbled over a mass of wires attached to the movable TV set in the class room while teaching. I hit the concrete wall with my head and seemed to survive that without trauma. I never lost consciousness but remember seeing all the students feet and no one was coming to help as they were all seated. Finally I saw a pair of feet coming to help me get up. It was one of my older students. When I asked the students why they hadn’t gotten up to help, their reply was; We’ve never seen a teacher fall.
Second incident was while “sleep walking” after having taken Ambien. I sort of came to in front of the bathroom mirror and saw a large lump on my forehead. I apparently had walked into something and knocked myself out as it was swollen. I than recall looking in my freezer, found an ice pack and wrapped a tea towel around it and went back to bed. It wasn’t until the next day when my daughter told me I had called her TWICE and told her what had happened. I don’t recall that at all.
Later, I reported this to my doctor who seemed to think that I had not had a concussion.