A new study suggests that people who have sustained a concussion, or a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) are more likely to have problems with their cognition (i.e. their thinking and information processing skills) one year later than those without concussion.
Researchers compared people who had been admitted to hospital for a concussion against people with no diagnosis of concussion. The participants undertook cognitive tests, examining skills such as memory, language and information processing; the tests were completed at different time points of two weeks, six months and one year.
14% of people with concussion had cognitive issues one year later, while only 5% of those without concussions had cognitive issues across the same length of time. They also found that people who had depression before their injury were more likely to have worse cognitive issues than those who were not depressed before their concussion, among other factors.
The study shows an association between cognitive issues and concussion, but further research is needed to explore cognition following concussion.
The study is published in the peer-reviewed journal Neurology, available at https://n.neurology.org/content/98/12/e1248
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