rss
Br J Sports Med 2006;40:72-75 doi:10.1136/bjsm.2005.020651
  • Original article

No cumulative effects for one or two previous concussions

  1. G L Iverson1,
  2. B L Brooks2,
  3. M R Lovell3,
  4. M W Collins3
  1. 1Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
  2. 2Riverview Hospital, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada
  3. 3University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr Iverson
 Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, 2255 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 2A1, Canada; giverson{at}interchange.ubc.ca
  • Accepted 12 July 2005

Abstract

Background: Sports medicine clinicians and the general public are interested in the possible cumulative effects of concussion.

Objective: To examine whether athletes with a history of one or two previous concussions differed in their preseason neuropsychological test performances or symptom reporting.

Method: Participants were 867 male high school and university amateur athletes who completed preseason testing with ImPACT version 2.0. They were sorted into three groups on the basis of number of previous concussions. There were 664 athletes with no previous concussions, 149 with one previous concussion, and 54 with two previous concussions. Multivariate analysis of variance was conducted using the verbal memory, visual memory, reaction time, processing speed, and postconcussion symptom composite scores as dependent variables and group membership as the independent variable.

Results: There was no significant multivariate effect, nor were there any significant main effects for individual scores. There was no measurable effect of one or two previous concussions on athletes’ preseason neuropsychological test performance or symptom reporting.

Conclusion: If there is a cumulative effect of one or two previous concussions, it is very small and undetectable using this methodology.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests: none declared

This Article

  1. Abstract
  2. Full text
  3. PDF

Responses

  1. Submit a response
  2. No responses published

Register for free content

The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.