Abstract
Self-report measures, particularly symptom inventories, are critical tools for identifying patients with persistent post-concussion symptoms and their follow-up. Unlike in military or sports-related assessment, in general civilian settings pre-injury levels of concussion-like symptoms are lacking. Normative data are available in adolescent and college populations, but no reference data exist to guide clinical adult explorations. The purpose of this study was to use the second edition of the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT2) to profile a cohort of 60 healthy community volunteers who had not sustained a head injury. Participating volunteers underwent MRI scanning and were evaluated with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Participants reported a median of 3 concussion-like symptoms and the 97.5 percentile score was found at 10.5 symptoms, out of a total of 22. The median severity score was 4.9 points, and 28.9 was the upper limit of the reference interval. Only 10 participants (16.7%) did not endorse any symptom. The most frequently endorsed symptom was feeling difficulty in concentrating, with 41.7% of the sample reporting it. Age, sex and general distress, anxiety and depressive symptoms were not associated with concussion-like symptoms. Our data yielded elevated cut-offs scores for both the number of symptoms and the symptom severity. In conclusion, postconcussive-like symptoms are frequent in the general non-concussed adult population and it should be taken into account in any future models developed for screening patients at risk of developing physical, cognitive, and psychological complaints following mild traumatic injury.
Highlights
IntroductionMild traumatic injury (mTBI) and concussion as a result of traffic accidents, assaults, sports, work injuries or deployed military have been acknowledged as a topic of intense public concern in the last decade.[1, 2] Concussion may translate into somatic symptoms—dizziness, nausea, headaches, etc.—and may affect cognitive and emotional
To avoid selecting an arbitrary cut-off outcome based on Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 2nd Edition (SCAT2), we carried out a pilot study to understand the baseline characteristics of a civil population and to explore the potential number of symptoms and their severity that could define a clinically relevant threshold
Further studies directed toward identifying individuals who are at risk for
Summary
Mild traumatic injury (mTBI) and concussion as a result of traffic accidents, assaults, sports, work injuries or deployed military have been acknowledged as a topic of intense public concern in the last decade.[1, 2] Concussion may translate into somatic symptoms—dizziness, nausea, headaches, etc.—and may affect cognitive and emotional. SCAT2 in the evaluation of civilian mild traumatic brain injury. A. R. was a recipient of a pre-doctoral grant from the Fundacio Institut de Recerca VHIR (PREDVHIR-2012-26, http://en.vhir.org). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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