Post-concussion syndrome is an unusual syndrome that affects about 15% of people who get a concussion. A concussion is caused by a mild brain injury, usually as a result of a blow to the head. When a concussion is mild, most people recover from major symptoms, like nausea, dizziness, and headache within a week or two. What puzzles medical researchers is that some people continue to have symptoms that can last for weeks after healing has occurred. In rare cases, symptoms can persist for a year or more after a person has suffered a concussion.
Doctors and medical researchers are unclear why people develop post-concussion syndrome, since there doesn’t seem to be a correlation with it and the severity of the concussion. Some researchers believe that the condition may be entirely psychological, while others argue that there is medical cause, even if it remains unidentified. Researchers do see that the syndrome is more prevalent among people who are older, so one identifiable risk factor for the illness is age. Women are also more at risk for developing this problem than are men.
Symptoms of post-concussion syndrome are essentially the persistence of symptoms a person might have in the first few weeks after having a head injury:
- Dizziness
- Headaches
- Difficulty Sleeping
- Changes in Mood, particularly greater irritability
- Sensitivity to light or noise
- Tiredness
- Changes in memory
Treatment for this syndrome should begin with treatment for a concussion. If a person has injured his or her head enough to where it caused loss of consciousness, chances are that he or she has a concussion. When the symptoms don’t resolve within a few weeks, there aren’t any standard methods for treatment. Instead, healthcare professionals tend to treat the symptoms that remain. Both headaches and nausea can be treated with medications, although they may make a person feel more tired.
Some healthcare professional may also want to perform a magnetic resonance imaging test (MRI) to look for residual injury that has not healed. Sometimes, the extent of brain injury may be underestimated at first, and swelling or bruising can persist. When this is the case, the person isn’t really experiencing post-concussion syndrome but is recovering from a more severe brain injury than was previously thought. Occasionally, medication is prescribed to treat residual symptoms, or steroids like prednisone may be prescribed to help reduce inflammation.
It makes sense for individuals to see a medical professional if the symptoms of concussion haven’t resolved within a few weeks. Though there is no one treatment, and healthcare professionals haven’t quite figured out what causes it, treating symptoms can help a person feel more comfortable.
