ImPact

Brain trauma among football players may be less the result of violent helmet-on-helmet collisions that cause concussions as the accumulation of sub-concussive blows.  The long-term effects of such repetitive brain trauma are still unknown.

With the spring sports season beginning, here are fifteen ways sports parents can help their young athlete be safe and injury-free.

A computerized neuropsychological test commonly used to evaluate sports-related concussions misclassified up to 29 percent of healthy participants in a recent test by a University of Texas at Arlington kinesiology researcher.

College-age athletes who had previously suffered a concussion performed more poorly on tests for verbal memory than those who had not, according to a new study presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine and 2nd World Congress on Exercise is Medicine® in June 2011.

Computerized neuropsycognitive testing for concussions has become increasingly popular in recent years and have been shown to have value in making the all-important return to play decision.

Baseline and post-concussion neuropsychological (NP) testing is now recommended for all athletes in sports with a high risk of concussion (e.g. football, lacrosse, hockey, soccer, basketball), regardless of age or level of performance, but the timing and type of testing may need to be adjusted for children and adolescents.