Non-concussion Head Impacts In Contact Sports Could Result In Lower Test Scores

Non-concussion Head Impacts In Contact Sports Could Result In Lower Test Scores

Blows to the head that do not result inc concussion can affect cognitive performance. Watch you child for school or emotional problems. 
 Perhaps athletes in high risk sports should be tested before and after the season?
JR

Non-concussion head impacts in sports that involve physical contact as normal play can lead to brain changes and result in lower test scores, a new study suggests.

Based on a recent study, repeated blows to the head during a season of contact sports such as football, hockey or boxing, may cause changes in the brain's white matter - tissue that contain nerve fibers -  and affect cognitive abilities even if none of the impacts resulted in a concussion.

 Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College found significant differences in the brain white matter of varsity football and hockey players compared with a group of non-contact sport athletes following one season of competition.

"The contact sports and non-contact sports groups differed, and the number of times the contact sports participants were hit, and the magnitude of the hits they sustained, were correlated with changes in the white matter measures," Thomas W. McAllister, M.D., chair of Indiana University's Department of Psychiatry, said in a statement.

Researchers also found that head impact in contact sports may also affect an athlete's performance.

"In addition, there was a group of contact sports athletes who didn't do as well as predicted on tests of learning and memory at the end of the season, and we found that the amount of change in the white matter measures was greater in this group," McAllister said

Children May Need Gradual Transition Back to Academics After Concussion

The American Academy of Pediatrics claims that once a child has a concussion, he or she may need a gradual transition back to school and academic classes.

This article is helpful in that it details accommodations.

I have some trouble with the assertions about rest. JR

A concussion should not only take a student athlete off the playing field -- it may also require a break from the classroom, according to a new clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

In the clinical report, "Returning to Learning Following a Concussion," released Sunday, Oct. 27 at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, the AAP offers guidance to pediatricians caring for children and adolescents after suffering a concussion.

"Students appear physically normal after a concussion, so it may be difficult for teachers and administrators to understand the extent of the child's injuries and recognize the potential need for academic adjustments," said Mark Halstead, MD, FAAP, a lead author of the clinical report. "But we know that children who've had a concussion may have trouble learning new material and remembering what they've learned, and returning to academics may worsen concussion symptoms."

Research has shown that a school-aged student usually recovers from a concussion within three weeks. If symptoms are severe, some students may need to stay home from school after a concussion. If symptoms or mild or tolerable, the parent may consider returning him or her to school, perhaps with some adjustments. Students with severe or prolonged symptoms lasting more than 3 weeks may require more formalized academic accommodations.

The AAP recommends a collaborative team approach to help a student recovering from a concussion. This team should consist of the child or adolescent's pediatrician, family members and individuals at the child's school responsible for both the student's academic schedule and physical activity. Detailed guidance on returning to sports and physical activities is contained in the 2010 AAP clinical report, "Sport-Related Concussion in Children and Adolescents."

A symptom checklist can help evaluate what symptoms the student is experiencing, and how severe they are.

"Every concussion is unique and symptoms will vary from student to student, so managing a student's return to the classroom will require an individualized approach," said Dr. Halstead. "The goal is to minimize disruptions to the student's life and return the student to school as soon as possible, and as symptoms improve, to increase the student's social, mental and physical activities."

Because relatively little research has been conducted on how concussion affects students' learning, the AAP based its report primarily on expert opinion and adapted it from a concussion management program developed at the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, Center for Concussion in Denver, Colo. The AAP calls for further research on the effects and role of cognitive rest after concussion to improve understanding of the best ways to help a student recovering from a concussion.

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Texas bill will limit full-contact football practices

A new bill in Texas would reduce the amount of full-contact football practices making football practices safer for the players and less likely to have a concussion.

Even on the football field, lessons in physics are inescapable. When two football players collide, the force can equal that of a head smashing against a wall at 20 mph. Hits that serious can cause concussions or more serious brain injuries.

If national averages hold true, about 8,000 of the 168,000 high school football players in Texas will be diagnosed with concussions each year, and untold numbers more will suffer head injuries that aren’t discovered.

“There are a number of horror stories out there about concussions,” said state Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville. “There’s got to be a balance of continuing to play the game at an optimal level and providing safety for the kids.”

Having already successfully pushed laws to make helmets safer and compel schools to safely treat concussions, Lucio has now filed legislation to reduce violent collisions in high school and middle school football by restricting full-contact practices to just one per week.

Right now, the University Interscholastic League — which oversees extracurricular activities for Texas’ public schools — has rules limiting full-contact practices during the off-season. Once the season begins, however, full-contact practices are allowed at all times during the 8 hours a week teams may practice. The UIL set up a program to address concussions in 2005 and has been actively updating it to fit recommendations from its medical board, which receives injury information from selected schools but doesn’t keep statewide concussion statistics.

Lucio cites a Purdue University study finding that repeated blows to the head still change brain activity, even if the individual hits aren’t that serious. Researchers assert that repetitive hits, not just one strong blow, can lead to concussions. By decreasing full-contact practices, Lucio said he hopes to limit those blows and give the brain the proper time to heal.

“If you don’t allow (a) muscle or bone to heal, it’s going to break,” he said. “The same thing is relative to the brain. It can only heal itself at a certain rate, and any additional hits could cause more damage.”

Lucio is still refining his definition of “full-contact” and plans to meet with football coaches this weekend to hash out details of the bill.

Some coaches, however, are concerned that fewer full-contact practices could actually increase concussion risks.

Practicing the fundamentals of safe tackling helps build muscle memory, and athletes can benefit from repetition, said Joe Willis, head football coach and athletic coordinator at Cedar Park High School.

“If you only practice those (fundamentals) once a week, you are moving in the opposite direction of what logic would tell you,” he said. “A kid can’t learn without the experimentation phase.”

Coach of last year’s Class 4A Division II state champions, Willis said Lucio’s bill might be a politically smart move from someone who has never played the game, but he fears it would limit the ability of coaches to teach proper fundamentals.

“I’ve always felt like good coaching prevents those things,” Willis said. “…If you have one day (of full-contact practice), and you go out there with bad technique on that one day, you might get a concussion anyway.”

Not all football coaches share Willis’ concerns. Lake Travis High School head coach Hank Carter said that his team already doesn’t tackle players to the ground during regular season practice to limit injuries.

Concussion awareness has taken center stage over the past few years as more stories about brain injuries trickle out from former players. Former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson shot himself in the chest in 2011 to preserve his brain for science. Autopsies of Duerson and other former players found evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to brain trauma.

Both the NFL and the Ivy League agreed to limit full-contact practices in 2011 in reaction to public outcry over player safety. The NFL allows only 14 for the entire regular season, the Ivy League two per week. Lucio said he believes that stringent protective measures like these should be in place for the youngest athletes who haven’t finished physical development and don’t have the ability to lobby for themselves.

“We can’t sacrifice (students’) physical or mental health long term,” he said. “It’s got to be a healthy marriage between the two, which is a safe environment to play in but to still play the game like it’s meant to be played.”

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