Lower post-injury psychological resilience is associated with increased recovery time and symptom burden following sport-related concussion

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare athletes with high and low resilience scores on concussion outcomes, and identify significant predictors associated with protracted recovery (>30 days). Forty-five adolescent and young adult athletes (28 males; aged 15.13 ± 2.74; range of 11–22) were diagnosed with an SRC within 14 days of injury (M = 4.9 days) and grouped as high or low resilience based on score on the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 (CD-RISC-10). Primary dependent measures included days to full clearance, Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT), Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale–21 (DASS-21), and Vestibular/Ocular Motor Screening (VOMS). The low resilience group (n = 22) had a longer recovery (36.0 ± 27.6 vs 17.8 ± 11.2 days), endorsed more mood symptoms (PCSS Affective cluster; 3.8 ± 0.8 vs 0.9 ± 0.7), and were more likely to have VOMS scores above cut off (p = 0.01–0.02), compared to those with high psychological resilience (n = 23). Logistic regression found low resilience scores was the only significant predictor for protracted recovery among injury characteristics and risk factors. Psychological resilience is a critical factor associated with recovery time following sport-related concussions. Low resilience was also associated with other poor clinical outcomes, greater subjective symptom report, more severe vestibular dysfunction, and elevated levels of mood symptoms following injury.

Keywords:

• Athlete
• concussion
• resiliency
• recovery

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts, financial interest, or benefit associated with this research.