Objective To examine whether adolescents with a history of mental health treatment experienced worse acute neurocognitive effects (within 3 days) following sport-related concussion compared to adolescents without a history of mental health treatment.

Design Cross-sectional, observational study.

Setting Adolescent student athletes between 13 and 18 years of age (M=15.52 SD=1.21) from schools in Maine, USA.

Participants Pre-season baseline and acute post-injury data were available for 879 athletes assessed within 3 days following a suspected concussion. Adolescents were divided into two groups: (i) no self-reported psychiatric history and (ii) self-reported preinjury history of treatment for a psychiatric disorder (n=75, 9%).

Outcome Measures Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT®) composite scores (visual memory, verbal memory, visual motor speed, and reaction time).

Main Results Results of repeated measures ANOVAs revealed statistically significant, small to medium magnitude differences between baseline and post-injury verbal memory (F(1)= 51.92, p<.001, d=-0.47), visual memory (F(1)= 69.07, p<.001, d=-0.46), visual motor speed (F(1)= 8.85, p=.003, d=-0.13), and reaction time (F(1)=18.49, p<.001, d=0.34). There were no significant interactions between time (e.g., baseline to post injury) and group (psychiatric history and no psychiatric history) for verbal memory (F(1)= 0.81, p=.37), visual memory (F(1)= 3.23, p=.07), visual motor speed (F(1)= 0.96, p=.33), or reaction time (F(1)=0.05, p=0.82).

Conclusions Adolescents with a preinjury history of psychiatric treatment, such as for anxiety or depression, did not exhibit worse neurocognitive functioning acutely following a sport-related concussion compared to adolescents without a preinjury psychiatric history.