Post-concussion syndrome affects 15% of people who have had a concussion, with symptoms including dizziness, headaches, and difficulty sleeping. It is unclear why some people develop the syndrome, but age and gender are risk factors. Treatment involves managing symptoms, and in some cases, MRI tests or medication may be used.
Post-concussion syndrome is an unusual syndrome that affects about 15 percent of people who have a concussion. A concussion is caused by a minor brain injury, usually from a blow to the head. When a concussion is mild, most people recover from the main symptoms, such as nausea, dizziness, and headache within a week or two. What has medical researchers puzzled 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 suffers a concussion.
Doctors and medical researchers aren’t clear on why people develop post-concussion syndrome, as there doesn’t seem to be a correlation with it and the severity of the concussion. Some researchers believe the condition may be entirely psychological, while others argue that there is a medical cause, even if it remains unidentified. Researchers see that the syndrome is more prevalent among older people, so one identifiable risk factor for the disease is age. Women are also more at risk of developing this problem than men.
The symptoms of post-concussion syndrome are essentially the persistence of symptoms a person might have in the first few weeks after suffering a head injury:
Dizziness
Heachache
Difficulty sleeping
Mood changes, especially increased irritability
Sensitivity to light or noise
Tiredness
Memory changes
Treatment for this syndrome should begin with treatment for a concussion. If a person has injured their head enough to cause loss of consciousness, they are likely to have a concussion. When symptoms don’t resolve within a few weeks, there are no standard methods for treatment. Instead, healthcare professionals tend to treat any symptoms that remain. Both headaches and nausea can be treated with medications, although they can make a person feel more tired.
Some healthcare providers may also want to do a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test to look for residual lesions that haven’t healed. Sometimes, the extent of the brain injury may be initially underestimated and swelling or bruising may persist. When this is the case, the person is not actually experiencing post-concussion syndrome but is recovering from a more severe brain injury than previously thought. Occasionally, medications are prescribed to treat residual symptoms or steroids such as prednisone may be prescribed to help reduce inflammation.
It makes sense for people to see a doctor if their concussion symptoms haven’t cleared up within a few weeks. While there is no single treatment and healthcare professionals have not yet figured out what causes it, treating symptoms can help a person feel more comfortable.
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