Study finds that symptoms persist beyond a year in the majority of concussion patients

By Will Altaweel. This article was initially published in our Concussion Update newsletter; please consider subscribing.

A study conducted by Joan Machamer et al. found that over two-thirds of concussion patients report persistent symptoms a year post-injury. The study, published in the Journal of Neurotrauma, included 2697 participants (ages 17 and older) who sustained a TBI. Participants were evaluated using the Rivermead Post-Concussion Questionnaire (RPQ) at two weeks and three, six, and twelve months post-injury.

Although participants’ RPQ scores decreased significantly between each evaluation, most participants still reported symptoms a year following their concussion. At the 12 month evaluation, 50 percent of participants reported at least three symptoms, and 71 percent of participants reported that at least one symptom was new or worse than pre-injury.

The findings challenge previous publications’ findings that symptoms typically resolve within three months following a concussion. Given these findings, the authors suggest that clinicians should seriously address symptom complaints that occur beyond three months post-injury.

Concussion Alliance would like to note that the Consensus Statement on Concussion in Sport says that “most individuals recover in 10-14 days,” and also mentions that “the large majority of injured athletes recover, from a clinical perspective, within the first month of injury.” Findings such as those by Joan Machamer et al. indicate that the consensus on average concussion recovery time likely will need updating.