A first-of-its kind study conducted at the University of Montreal and published online Jan. 28 in the journal Brain, has found that athletes who suffer a concussion can experience declines in their mental and physical processes more than 30 years later.
The bulk of research on the topic has focused on immediate, post-concussion periods and on deciding when it's safe for an athlete suffering a concussed to return to action. Studying the long-term effects of concussion had been overlooked, until now, when researchers examined 40 former university-level athletes between the ages of 50 and 60, and in good health, 19 of which had suffered concussions more than 30 years earlier, while the remaining 21 had no history of concussions.
In comparing them to those who were concussion-free, the subjects who'd been concussed once or twice in their early adulthood showed declines in attention, declines in memory, and a slowing of some types of movement.
Author Louis De Beaumont, of the University of Montreal, in a news release, indicated that the effects of concussions, suffered in the course of sports participation, persist 30 years post-concussion, and can cause cognitive and motor function alterations as the athletes age. He further recommended that, in view of these findings, that "athletes should be better informed about the cumulative and persistent effects of sports concussion on mental and physical processes, so that they know about the risks associated with returning to their sport".
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