Hannah Hittson, BS
Medical Student
University of Texas Southwestern
Dallas, Texas, United States
Priya Nangrani, MD
Traumatic Brain Injury Fellow
University of Texas Southwestern
Dallas, Texas, United States
.jpg "Surendra Barshikar, MD photo")
Surendra Barshikar, MD
Associate Professor
University of Texas Southwestern
Dallas, Texas, United States
Sarah Z. Mahasin, MD
Attending Physiatrist
HealthPartners
Champlin, Minnesota, United States
Kathleen R. Bell, MD (she/her/hers)
Adjunct Professor
University of Texas Southwestern
Bellingham, Washington, United States
Bilal Hassan, MD
Resident Physician
Texas Rehabilitation Hospital
Fort Worth, Texas, United States
Concussions are a prevalent form of mild traumatic brain injury that typically resolves within weeks but can often result in persistent symptoms affecting an individual's quality of life. While much of the existing literature focuses on athletes, military personnel, or pediatric populations, there is little understanding of chronic concussions within civilian adult populations. This study therefore aims to characterize demographic factors and comorbidities associated with chronic concussion symptoms in civilian adults.
This is a single-center retrospective cohort study. We included adult patients with post-concussive symptoms seen in a multidisciplinary concussion clinic from March 2018 to April 2023, excluding military or sports-related cases. Patient data was extracted from electronic medical records and stored in a secure HIPAA-compliant database. Descriptive statistics were used to assess the prevalence of demographic factors and comorbidities within this population.
This study included 132 patients, predominantly female (67.4%, n=89), with 60.3% (n=76) having some college education or degree. Â Additionally, 54.0% (n=70) reported premorbid mental health conditions, mainly depression or anxiety. 70.5% (n=93) had other premorbid health conditions, such as hypertension or diabetes. Additionally, the majority experienced post-traumatic amnesia lasting less than 24 hours (56.8%, n=75). The most common mechanisms of injury were motor vehicle collisions (MVC) (47.8%, n=64) and falls (31.3%, n=41), with 71.4% (n=30) of the falls occurring in patients over the age of 40.
Our results found that adults with persistent symptoms after concussion were most often female and had premorbid health conditions. The most common mechanism of injury was MVC. This study highlights the importance of identifying comorbid conditions found in civilian adults with chronic concussion symptoms, thus providing necessary insights that guide clinical practice and optimize recovery strategies in concussion treatment. Furthermore, this study advances our understanding of post-concussion syndrome in the understudied population of adult, non-military patients.
