Introduction
Concussions must be quickly and precisely diagnosed to design effective treatment plans and preventative measures, and be aware of their symptoms. In the United States, 1.365 million of the 1.7 million persons who experience a traumatic brain injury are treated and released, suggesting that their injuries are not serious (Mullally, 2017). The most common symptoms of a concussion assessment discussed in this paper are neurocognitive issues, headache, disorientation, memory loss, dizziness, and PTHA.
Symptoms
The typical symptoms of concussions are comparable to those of more severe TBIs, although the pathology’s severity and persistence are less intense. Following a concussion, neurocognitive issues are frequent and often disrupt executive abilities, which are most frequently linked to frontal lobe dysfunction (Giza et al., 2018). Short-term mild concussion symptoms typically appear immediately after the incident and might include headache, disorientation, memory loss, or dizziness (Hubertus et al., 2019). These symptoms can linger for hours to days and are typically gone by two weeks (McCrory et al., 2017).
One of the most frequent symptoms following a concussion is post-traumatic headache (PTHA), which can happen in 30 to 90% of concussion cases (Giza et al., 2018). PTHA may be isolated, but it commonly exhibits concussion-related symptoms such as photo – and phonophobia, dizziness, cognitive impairment, depression and anxiety, and insomnia. In terms of length, the headache can be further divided into acute (lasting less than three months) and chronic (lasting more than three months).
Conclusion
A concussion is a trauma-induced shift in the mental state from a diagnostic perspective, which may or may not cause a lack of consciousness. Since there are no measurable biomarkers for concussions, diagnosing and treating them presents particular difficulties for medical professionals. However, specific indicators to look for during assessment include neurocognitive problems, headaches, disorientation, impaired memory, fatigue, and PTHA.
References
Giza, C., Greco, T., & Prins, M. L. (2018). Concussion: pathophysiology and clinical translation. Sports Neurology, 51–61. Web.
Hubertus, V., Marklund, N., & Vajkoczy, P. (2019). Management of concussion in soccer. Acta Neurochirurgica, 161(3), 425–433. Web.
McCrory, P., Feddermann-Demont, N., Dvořák, J., Cassidy, J. D., McIntosh, A., Vos, P. E., Echemendia, R. J., Meeuwisse, W., & Tarnutzer, A. A. (2017). What is the definition of sports-related concussion: A systematic review. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 51(11), 877–887. Web.
Mullally, W. J. (2017). Concussion. The American Journal of Medicine, 130(8), 885–892. Web.