A recent study warns, children who suffer a concussion don’t just have a minor head bump, but a brain injury that parents, coaches and teachers need to take more seriously.
The researchers say parents often believe that a concussion injury is mild and doesn’t involve damage to the brain. However, “concussion really is a brain injury — there’s no question about that,” said lead researcher Dr. Carol DeMatteo, an associate clinical professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario..
“The term concussion is used frequently, but there are no real guidelines in using it with children,” DeMatteo said. “This means that many different types of injury of different severity can be called a concussion. This leads to misconceptions by families and coaches and teachers and children themselves.”
Dr. DeMatteo says these injuries should be called mild brain injuries instead of concussions and that may help these children get the care they need.
In the study, which appears in Pediatrics, DeMatteo’s group reviewed the medical records of 434 children seen at McMaster Children’s Hospital for a brain injury. About a 32 percent were diagnosed with concussion.
The researchers found that, compared with other brain injuries, children diagnosed with concussion spent less time in the hospital and fewer days out of school. They were also more likely to go back to school shortly after leaving the hospital.
If children go back to school or sports too soon after a concussion they are at an increased risk of having another head injury.
DeMatteo believes that children should see a doctor if they are showing signs of a concussion, such as fatigue, headache, memory problems, disturbed sleep or mood changes. These symptoms can affect school performance, and returning too soon to sports can increase the risk for another injury, she said.
Most importantly, having a subsequent head injury can boost the odds of doing permanent damage to the brain, DeMatteo noted.
