Clear heads – Identifying the patients at risk of suffering long-term impairments from a concussion could revolutionise the way they are treated.
Raquel de Brito from The West Australian newspaper meet Professor Lindy Fitzgerald, head of neurotrauma research at the Perron Institute and Curtin University.
“While most concussion sufferers fully recover within a few weeks, about one in five are not so lucky and can go on to have persisting symptoms such as fogginess, altered emotional control and physical problems such as headaches and neck pain.
Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science and Curtin University neuro trauma researcher Melinda Fitzgerald is leading clinical work to predict which patients are likely to suffer these long-term issues.
“We are testing a suite of potential predictive indicators so we’re looking at the pre-injury factors; whether people have already suffered a concussion in the past, whether they suffer from any kind of neuro- psychological disorder, if they’ve been diagnosed with depression or anxiety in the past,” Professor Fitzgerald explains.”
Continue reading the full West Australian newspaper article here