Brain injuries common in amateur athletes

September 7, 1999
Web posted at: 6:01 PM EDT (2201 GMT)

In this story: Making the diagnosis Football players' learning ability Soccer players affected, too High-school athletes susceptible RELATEDS

By Rochelle Jones

(WebMD) -- With students now back in the classroom, athletic teams are marching onto the playing fields -- hopefully to victory, but perhaps to traumatic brain injuries, which may go unrecognized and untreated, a new report has found.

Amateur athletes who play sports including football and soccer often suffer mild head injuries that hurt their ability to perform well on written and verbal tests, researchers of three separate studies are reporting in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.

Despite the popularity of these sports, the mental effects of associated mild brain injuries have not been widely studied, said Dr. James Kelly, who wrote an editorial accompanying the articles and is director of the Brain Injury Program at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

"Traumatic brain injury is a public-health epidemic," said Kelly, who pointed out that about 300,000 people who participate in amateur sports, including high-school and college athletes, will suffer from traumatic brain injuries this year. The exact number among young athletes is unknown.

Overall, 1 million people will suffer traumatic brain injuries this year, leading to more than 50,000 deaths and 70,000 to 90,000 cases of long-term disability, according to the editorial. The number exceeds the newly diagnosed cases of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease combined.

Making the diagnosis

Even though the injuries are quite common, doctors may very often misdiagnose or overlook them, Kelly said. Most doctors are poorly educated about the syndrome and often fail to recognize complaints such as headaches, sleep disturbances and inability to concentrate, which may be caused by mild brain injuries.

"People are told time after time that their problems are psychological when they are really physical," he said. "Not uncommonly, people believe that they are losing their minds."

Football players' learning ability

In one study, researchers examined 393 football players on four major college football teams and found that about one in three players suffered a concussion, which study author Michael Collins said is a "very high" rate of injury.

After the injury, the players scored poorly on performance tests of numerous mental skills for up to five days. Players who sustained more than one injury showed signs of long-term neurological damage, especially if they also had a learning disability.

The study also revealed that football players who experienced multiple head injuries were more likely to have a learning disability. Almost one in five football players who had repeatedly suffered concussions had some form of learning disability, compared to one in 10 of players who hadn't suffered from concussions.

"The results are very surprising," said Collins, a neuropsychologist at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. "These results suggest that players may be playing [despite] injuries to their long-term detriment."

Soccer players affected, too

Researchers found similar results in a study of amateur soccer players who scored low on tests of memory and planning abilities compared to non-soccer players. While the results were significant, long-term effects of brain injury in the soccer players is still unknown, said Dr. Barry Jordan, co-author of the article and head of the Brain Injury Program at Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains, New York.

High-school athletes susceptible

In the third study, researchers found that more than 5 percent of all injuries in 10 popular high-school sports could be classified as mild traumatic brain injuries. Most of the injuries were found in players participating in football (63.4 percent), wrestling (10.5 percent), girls' soccer (6.2 percent) and boys' soccer (5.7 percent).

The study results will add to the dearth of information on the incidence of concussions among young athletes, said John Powell, of Michigan State University, who is a co-author of the article. In addition, the results may bring to light the number of brain injuries in amateur sports, which has probably been underreported.

"We tend to think if a kid isn't knocked unconscious, he's okay," Powell said. These injuries "aren't like an ankle sprain that is clearly identifiable."

The researchers said that players need to be monitored closely after head injuries and sidelined until they no longer experience headaches or other symptoms. But the researchers said that the findings do not mean that young athletes should abandon sports.

RELATEDS AT :

CDC report shows prevalence of brain injury

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RELATED SITES:

Journal of the American Medical Association
Traumatic brain injury

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