Post-concussion symptoms in mild traumatic brain injury: findings from a paediatric outpatient clinic

Abstract

Purpose Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is common among children and is associated with a range of symptomatology and clinical presentations. This study uses data from a paediatric outpatient TBI clinic to (1) investigate characteristics associated with more severe post-concussive symptoms and (2) examine differences in the proportion of individuals endorsing specific post-concussion symptoms based on group (e.g., sex, type of injury, and psychiatric history). Methods Data from the Children’s Hospital of Richmond’s TBI outpatient programme were analysed (N = 157). Results Gender and sports injury were associated with severity of symptoms. In addition, females endorsed a greater number of overall symptoms than males. A number of specific symptoms were found to be endorsed to a greater extent based on psychiatric history and type of injury; however, overall total number of symptoms endorsed did not differ based on these characteristics. Conclusions Findings from this study provide further evidence that mTBI affects a wide range of youth and that associated symptomatology can indeed be varied. Moreover, results revealed differences in endorsement of specific symptoms and symptom severity based on patient and injury characteristics which have implications for concussion assessment and treatment.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Symptoms following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in children and adolescents can have varied presentation, ranging from minimal to severe.

• Females and those with non-sports-related injuries are more likely to endorse greater symptoms following concussion.

• Symptom evaluation is an essential component of the concussion assessment and treatment of paediatric patients following mTBI, and clinicians should be aware of patient characteristics associated with increased symptoms, especially when baseline symptom data are not available.

Keywords:

• Adolescent
• brain concussion
• brain injuries
• child
• paediatric hospitals
• post-concussion syndrome

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest. This study was not funded.