Student Perspectives: Interventions for Post-Concussion Syndrome Prevention Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Recommendations and Future Directions
Approximately 2.5 million people present to an emergency department each year due to traumatic brain injury (TBI; Taylor et al., 2017). An estimated 75% of these cases involve mild TBI (mTBI; i.e., concussion) and do not require hospitalization (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center or Injury Prevention and Control, 2003). Thus, individuals are triaged and treated in the emergency department, released to rest at home, and receive outpatient follow-up care as needed. Following mTBI, it is not uncommon for people to experience some physical and sensory symptoms, such as headaches, blurred vision and nausea, and cognitive symptoms, such as difficulties with concentration, disorientation, and trouble sleeping. Most people fully recover from these symptoms within three months of the injury (Permenter et al., 2022). When concussion symptoms persist beyond what is expected in typical recovery (i.e., three months for mTBI), post-concussion syndrome (PCS) may be diagnosed (Permenter et al., 2022). Due to a lack of consensus around specific diagnostic criteria for PCS diagnosis, prevalence estimates vary between 11% to around 30% (Dean et al., 2012; Spinos et al., 2010; Voormolen et al., 2018).