Having a prior concussion increases the risk for another: Concussion Alliance experts interviewed about Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa

After the Miami Dolphin’s General Manager Chris Price declared that their quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was not “more prone to concussion than anyone else” after two or three concussions in a short time frame, the South Florida Sun Sentinel Chris Perkins interviewed three Concussion Alliance team members. In his article, Perkins included numerous quotes from Expert Advisory Board members Elizabeth Sandel, MD, and Julie Stamm, PhD. The article is paywalled; here is a pdf of the article.

”Dr. Julie Stamm, a member of the Concussion Alliance expert advisory board, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of ‘The Brain on Youth Sports: The Science, The Myths and The Future,’ said there are two pieces at work here.

‘There is a lot of evidence that suggests that having a prior concussion increases the risk for another, or people who have a history of concussion are at greater risk of having another concussion,” she said.

‘And then the other piece is the amount of time in between.’

Stamm said ‘there’s a lot of evidence’ that shows even though a person thinks they’ve recovered from a concussion, the brain hasn’t actually healed.

‘So there’s evidence that if you go back too quickly, that your risk of concussion is higher after having sustained a concussion,’ Stamm said. ‘And we don’t really know exactly when that brain has truly healed.

‘So that’s something we’re studying more and more.’”
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”Sandel said another issue with concussion recovery is it’s symptom-based, meaning when a player stops reporting symptoms, whether or not they’ve dissipated, they’re considered on the road to recovery.

‘Athletes don’t always report their symptoms, so symptom resolution may not actually be totally symptom resolution because it’s [the athlete’s] report,” Sandel said. “And there are imaging studies that show that the brain actually is not completely recovered even after symptoms resolve.
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“The Dolphins seem committed to their point of view that Tagovailoa isn’t prone to more concussions because of his past, and some studies are on their side.

‘But the majority of research out there, if you take it all together,’ Stamm said, ‘would suggest that there’s an increased risk for another concussion with that kind of lifetime history.’”