Concussions Often Followed by the Blues

After a concussion, many college athletes experienced a temporary period of depression, Canadian researchers.

After a concussion, many college athletes experienced a temporary period of depression, Canadian researchers. People are generally warned to avoid sports or any activity that could cause injury while they are experiencing any lingering symptoms from a concussion, and depression should be added to the list of possible after-effects, study author Dr. Lynda Mainwaring of the University of Toronto told Reuters Health. However, she added that post-concussion depression appears to resolve within three weeks after the injury. So Mainwaring hopes that, if people experience a concussion and start the next day with a low mood, these findings let them know that “this is normal, and it is going to go away.” Other symptoms of concussion include trouble sleeping, headaches, fatigue, dizziness and sensitivity to noise or light. Mainwaring and her colleagues measured the general mood of 341 college athletes and 28 undergraduate students. When 16 of the athletes experienced concussions, the researchers then re-checked their moods, and compared the results. Athletes who experienced concussions showed similar moods to other students before their injury, the investigators report in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology. However, after a concussion, they showed a significant rise in symptoms of depression, confusion and low mood. In an interview, Mainwaring explained that these results suggest that athletes’ depression is “a result of that concussion.” However, she noted that it is impossible to determine whether athletes are depressed as a result of other factors as well, such as being temporarily sidelined from play. She explained that people who experience concussions are advised to take it easy while they are still experiencing symptoms, because those symptoms indicate that something is still unsettled in the brain which could be further aggravated by another injury. In addition, some of the symptoms of concussion – like fatigue and confusion – make people vulnerable to other injuries, such as spraining an ankle, she added. After a concussion, “you may not be firing on all plugs,” she said. (Source: Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology: Reuters Health News: April 2004)