Study examines concussion-like symptom reporting in uninjured athletes
Every state in the U.S. has passed legislation pertaining to sport-related concussion. In general, the laws mandate that injured student athletes be evaluated by a qualified health care professional before they can return to participating in sports. Decisions about returning to activity are based on symptom reporting. Grant L. Iverson, Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School, Boston, and coauthors sought to clarify factors associated with concussion-like symptoms in uninjured adolescents using data from more than 30,000 student athletes. It is important for clinicians to understand factors that may be associated with baseline symptom reporting so they can properly make decisions about when athletes may return to activity. The authors found symptom reporting . was more common in girls than boys and that in the absence of a recent concussion, 19 percent of boys and 28 percent of girls reported a group of symptoms similar to postconcussional syndrome. Preexisting psychiatric, development...