ECHO
Cognition is best yardstick of fitness after concussion
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Concussed athletes must wait until cognitive function returns to normal before resuming their sport, researchers are urging, after prospectively comparing performance of Australian rules footballers with and without symptoms days after their initial injury. Waiting until symptoms resolve, as currently recommended, is not enough, they say.
Footballers showed significantly reduced performance in motor function and divided attention on computerised tests if they still had even minimal symptoms at the time of testing. Performance dipped only for divided attention if the footballers had no symptoms; their cognitive function equalled that at baseline and that of uninjured control players. On pencil and paper neuropsychological tests footballers with symptoms performed as well as at baseline but did not show the significant improvements evident in those without symptoms and the controls. Footballers with symptoms took longer to return to sport, and it seemed that symptoms at injury, symptom resolution, cognitive performance, and time before
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