Anyone who has ever experienced, even briefly, the symptoms of a mild concussion — headache, fatigue, fuzziness, confusion, dizziness, forgetfulness — knows that “mild” brain injury is a misnomer. But that said, most people don’t suffer any long-term problems.
A TBI can occur in a fall, a car crash, when the skull is struck by a heavy object, or a collision with an opponent on the playing field. Because the brain is protected in a shock-absorbing liquid and surrounded by the skull, in most cases, there are no long-lasting symptoms. The skull and cerebrospinal fluid are often enough to protect the brain from serious damage.
Although there are no hard statistics on what percentage of mild TBIs heal quickly and with no lasting symptoms, the medical consensus is that any symptoms from most mild TBIs usually get better in a month or so. If symptoms persist after six months, they often disappear altogether or are greatly improved within a year after the injury. And, most studies have shown that a single mild TBI presents no short- or long-term cognitive or behavioral risk.
Diagnosing a mild TBI or concussion — and tying symptoms to a mild TBI and ONLY to the mild TBI — can be tricky because sometimes symptoms may actually be due to another injury sustained at the same time as the concussion. For example, someone who sustains a mild TBI in a car crash may continue, months later, to complain of headaches. It might take a medical specialist to figure out that the headaches result from an injury to the neck and not to the brain, so they can then be treated appropriately.
The bottom line is that no jolt to the head should be considered acceptable. Our one brain deserves to be taken care of. That does not mean every hit to the head merits a panicked trip to the emergency room or that it will result in permanent damage. It just means that people should be aware of the fragility of their brain and seek medical attention if symptoms emerge after a hit or fall.
We’ve still got a lot to learn about the brain and what happens at a cellular level after a concussion. But for now, the good news is that most people who sustain or are diagnosed with a “mild” TBI recover quickly and fully. Some lucky people never experience any symptoms at all.
- World Health Organization Task Force, 2004
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Concussion Clinic, Burwood Hospital